We Saw a Chicken …

Category: o canada

  • “The clean air choice of Earth Day Canada.”

    So, what would you think would be “The clean air choice of Earth Day Canada“? A bicycle, perhaps? Some kind of renewable energy? Some really brilliant Canadian enviro-social development, like a biodegradeable donut?

    Nope, a car; the Toyota Prius. Last time I checked, it still used petroleum (with its high environmental and geopolitical toxicity). It still causes gridlock; I see Priuses (Prii? Your moon-pie eye!) inching along the Gardiner from the GO train with all the other wretched junkers. The way I see it, it’s not looking like part of the solution. It’s a bit like having an official assault rifle for the the International Day of Peace.

    Toyota also give out $5000 Toyota Earth Day Scholarships. I mean, that’s nice and all, but it’s hardly giving back. If you look at all the scholarship materials, it’s carefully arranged so it looks like the event is called Toyota Earth Day, with the ‘scholarship’ on the next line. Nice cooption. Good greenwash.

  • Toronto Subway Station GPS Locations

    After seeing the various nifty web-enabled transit maps, I realised I had the data handy to get things started. A while back, I georeferenced the TTC Ride Guide, and digitized all the station locations. I cleaned them up today, and in the hope of being useful, here are the files:

    These are simple three-column CSV files, stating latitude, longitude, and station name. They should be in order of stations. Locations are probably within about 50m of real life, but don’t bank on it.

    I’ll get these into more useful formats soon, like GPX and KML. For now though, if you can use ’em, go ahead and do something.

  • london’s mean trick

    I was stranded in London (Ontario, that is) last week due to a fuel pump failure in an elderly Subaru. Looking for some breakfast, I followed my nose to the most amazing smell of fruit pastries.

    … and wound up next to the Kellogg’s factory. I suspect Pop Tarts. A low trick.

  • well, that was easy, maybe

    Just did my citizenship test. 20 questions, two of which you must get right, three of which you must get at least one right, and fifteen non-mandatory questions. Pass mark is 12/20.

    Seemed not very difficult, either:— who was the first prime minister, who can vote, when was the Charter introduced, when did Newfoundland & Labrador join the Confederacy, when did Nunavut become a territory; that sort of thing. To think I spent all that time worrying about natural resources, the third line of O Canada! and Lieutenant Governors (sings: Bartleman, Bartleman, Does everything a … hey, wait a minute, just what can a bartle do, anyway?).

    It did dismay and astonish me how badly prepared some people were. About 5 out of the 40 people didn’t turn up, and maybe 10 people didn’t have the requisite papers. C’mon people, don’t you want to be Canadian?

  • saturday night with the resisters

    Just back from Innes Town Hall, to see a screening of Let Them Stay, a documentary about US war resisters in Canada, hosted by War Resisters Canada. It was a fun evening.

    support a resister, wear a resistor
    I wonder if I should start wearing a resistor in my lapel: Support a Resister, Wear a Resistor? Sure beats wearing a triode for the War Amps …

  • it’s snowing

    it\'s snowing

  • The Scarborough Popular Front

    Went to a Community First Scarborough meeting last night. I have no other comment to make at this time.

  • Bill, the Area Man

    Seems that Bill lives just around the corner. And I thought that this area was pretty much a blogger-free zone, too.

  • big windfarm, big deal

    So there was a stramash that the RSPB published a map showing where the Lewis wind farm would reach if it started in Edinburgh. Oh noes! Looks like it’d go all the way to Methil.

    I’ve been working on a couple of medium-sized wind farms in Ontario. For top laughs, I tried overlaying them on Scotland, using streetmap.co.uk for the measurements.

    Since I’m a weegie, I started at George Square. One of the farms would stretch all the way west by Wishaw, near Murdostoun Castle (and the comically-named town of Bonkle). The other would run north to somewhere between Fintry and Kippen, in Stirlingshire.

    For those of you unlucky enough to be based east of Falkirk, I tried the same starting at Edinburgh Castle. The first wind farm would run west to the hamlet of Gilchriston, which is just north-west of Dun Law Wind Farm, which I worked on in the distant past. (If you run the farm west from Edinburgh, you end up in Bo’ness, which no-one would want to do.) The other design would end up somewhere between Kirkcaldy and Glenrothes, near Thornton — and not that far from Methil, a distance that the RSPB would have us believe is just too far for a wind farm.

    So, where’s the news, RSPB? How did your land get somehow more precious than ours?

  • oh no, canada!

    Eep! Notice of my citizenship test arrived — it’s on the 12th — and I can’t even find, let alone have read, my copy of A Look At Canada.

  • new donut pretender

    I’ve a feeling I might get to like the blueberry fritter almost as much as my canonical donut, the sour cream glazed.

  • take yourself to Guelph!

    We spent our anniversary weekend in Guelph, which is a nicer town than most Torontonians give it credit for.

    (the title is Catherine‘s tourism slogan for the city.)

  • Goodbye, Star Wars Tree

    burnt-out mini mall, Kennedy & Eglinton
    The mini-mall burned last night. Looks like the centre of the fire was the gift shop in the middle of the block. The rest of the block is pretty badly damaged, though. It looks like the place will have to be rebuilt — or replaced with a condo block, which seems to be the fate of shops in Scarborough.

    I hope that noone was hurt.

    So, goodbye Yoga’s, with your selection of teas and Sri Lankan groceries. Goodbye Star Milk, the mom, pop and smiley baby store with your VLT in back and dodgy videos over the drinks cooler. Goodbye Poondy Bread, purveyors of that which has paneity. Goodbye Amma, ace Sri Lankan takeout food shop, the place where I developed a taste for really spicy food.

    But most of all, goodbye to the gift shop. Even though I never went in there, I’ll miss the sun-yellowed unsold toys in the window; the almost-Transformers and plastic racing cars.

    One toy, unsold through two summers, perplexed me most. It was a cardboard tube wrapped in tinsel. Cardboard tags with pictures of Star Wars characters were attached to it with those nylon annoyances you get on new clothes. It resembled more a christmas decoration than a space weapon, which I think it was supposed to be. We called it the Star Wars Tree, and I’m guessing it wasn’t officially licensed from Lucasfilm.

    It’s all gone now, washed away by the fire hoses.

  • new, improved brunswick

    I was supposed to go to New Brunswick tomorrow, but the trip was cancelled. Bah.

  • What’s with the Council of Canadians, eh?

    Every couple of months, the Council of Canadians sends me a large and visually unappealing (1986 called; they want their typewriter font back) mailing, ranting about how those pesky Americans keep stealing our water.

    Close reading of the mailing (which is hard, given the woeful typography) shows that the initiatives being railed at are either:

    1. run by Canadian companies, or
    2. are part of legislation voted for by Canadians.

    Like most environmental things, Canada has an appalling record of looking after its abundant water. I think we think that the rest of the world thinks better of us than they do, or maybe even frankly cares about Canada.

    I’m a bit worried by the CoC’s use of the n-word — nationalist — since it has unpleasant connotations, like the BNP and SNLA. Also, at least half of the mailing could be summed up as The Maude Barlow Fanzine, with only slightly lower production quality than the average zine.

    And anyway, pesky Americans haven’t been stealing our water. Catherine hasn’t been sneaking any more out of the house than usual …

  • queen west

    Went to Canzine today after meeting. Can you belive it, an almost full house and it was a silent meeting?

    Anyway, Canzine was full. Bought a couple of Spacing TTC buttons to show my commuter tribe affiliation (Kennedy — Union), and also a m@b book. Eveyone’s favourite Bramptonian Friendly Rich was there, being friendly and well-dressed. Jim Munroe looked in his element in his No Media Kings room.

    After that, I walked down to the turbine. The warm weather had brought the ladybirds out. They were all over the deck.

  • sparkly!

    First frost of the autumn.

  • wild east gone west?

    My usual music store, Wild East Compact Sound on the Danforth, looked very closed today. I hope that John’s doing okay …

  • winter

    We’ve had our first frost at a measuring site out in Alberta. From now on, it’s data censoring for frozen anemometers until April next year …

  • the “do not clue” list

    Ever get one of those sales call-centre calls where you get some automated message before an operator picks up? We get a lot of those, and usually it’s fairly easy to tell they’re automated.

    The one I just got was somewhat lacking in clues of configuration: “This is the default message for the live person message.”

    I so hung up on them.