As we watched two recent Charter rulings play our during yesterday's TV broadcast of the SARS-stock concert - public weed puffin' and happy nudies - the Pope was planning a statement on another Charter Right, as rightly pointed out and rejected by the Flea. Butt out, JPII. Nunya.  •  As a UCC PK …

Go south, south-east, east, north-east, north-east  •  I need help. We are going from Kingston, Ontario to Portland, Maine Friday and there are a few things to deal with once we ford the mighty St. Lawrence, crossing on the somewhat less mighty St. Vincent ferry: Adirondack Park, Lake Champlain …

As David Swick points out in today's Halifax Daily News [the column], Nova Scotia is facing a squeeker of an election in a few days. After living in PEI - where the NDP is a factor only in keeping the Tories in power by splitting the center-left, a sad fact due to the Province's failure to …

Incredible computer cracking investigatory skills revealed!  •  I do not find fault with the BBC often, but was this graphic from an article on file sharing necessary? If you replace the computers with slackers at the 7-11 and add an "undercover" slacker have you not just described how kids get …

Due to reasonable limitations on my ability to download new applications at work, I have to rely on my Windows Media Player for my workday drone. This rules out BBC Five Live which had been my aural diet for some time and most other BBC stations. It also rules out CBC so I can't listen to Maritime …

From Poochkiss, comes a link to these stats about blogging:  •  “Somewhere between 2.4 and 2.9 million active blogs in existence, but they remain a tiny slice of web life. Only 2% of web users have created a blog, and only an estimated 4% read them...”  •  Given that there are only so many hours …

I came across Mike Campbell's blog after he and David Janes linked to what Ross called my self-indulgent Halifax post. Mike is a Haligonian and I get the sense he and I may have stood shoulder to shoulder at the Seahorse waiting for service before the Guinness tap was installed. He has been …

I guess, like Homer's credit card, my celebrity status was pre-declined.

Based on my new found status as a researcher [and care of the Flea] who other than me has brain cells dedicated to the retention of the music from these great Canadian works of art?  •  Rocket Robin Hood;  •  The Hulk; and  •  The Mighty Hercules.  •  Oddly that guys site does not have reference …

I have been thinking more about the limits about what is appropriate referencing of the stuff of others on a blog like this. Well, looking at the Canadian Copyright Act helps.  •  “  •  29. Fair dealing for the purpose of research or private study does not infringe copyright.  •  29.1 Fair dealing …

Here's a good example of what I have been saying. It appears Jevon has had a spot of bother with the name of one of his widgetty websites, blogtrack, which has existed since December 2001* according to the Way Back Machine. Another site uses the word to describe their widget which does much the …

This column disturbs me. Referred to in this post by Dean Allen as a "lifestyle-slathered princess ditz earning a six-figure salary to rephrase the same fictions of urban hip every Saturday", The Globe and Mail's columnist Leah McLaren and all her pals are apparently on the sauce pretty much most …

A few New Yorkers ago there was a very good article on patent creeping in the US which describes the apparent desire of the US court to declare everything existing and being done in the universe as patentable. An interesting thread on MetaFilter was spawned.  •  As noted at the time in a …

I thought David Swick was on vacation but canada.com just failed for the last 3 weeks to tell we ex-pat Haligonians that we could find the Halifax Daily News and my favorite columnist at a new location: www.hfxnews.ca.  •  Thank God. I can scrape another pre-1999-ish "portal" glom from my …

I have read much a little too lately about personality conflicts among those interested in the ownership and openness of some of the applications which support authors publishing thoughts like these on the web. Usually I do not concern myself with such things any more than I get involved with the …

There are a few words, like "pie", that evoke the pure pleasure of being a kid. If it weren't for the pictures we have seen of bears in 5 x 5 x 5 cages somewhere in the world, "zoo" would be one of them. The Metro Toronto Zoo does its part to give those three letters a good polish and shine …

The US Senate has done its part to remember and honour the second last line of their national anthem.

I just listened to a representative of the Roman Catholic Church and the United Church of Canada debate same sex marraiges on the CBC morning show The Current. It was very nice to hear the gloves come off. The RC rep was particularly jump-all-over-ish.  •  Best line from the United rep to the RC …

I was looking at a blog post about the new Super Friendz new CD when I wonderwed who was in the band, cause I used to live in Half-a-slacks in the 80's, went to the Grafton Street Cafe, was 1/2 of Bob the Dog on CKDU and I found this picture on the band's old site and I think - that guy looks like …

I bought another beer book. I picked up a copy of "Man Walks into a Pub" by Pete Brown on Thursday after noon and it was done by Sunday. Not bad for guy with kiddies. The Guardian said:  •  “So, as well as the irreverent approach Brown takes to beer's history, he has a refreshingly sensible take …

I am looking for a diner. Ever since my Kings College days, too few of which were spent at the Spartan Restaurant at Quinpool and Oxford, I have sought out a local diner. In Pembroke, the Lucky Inn was great, especially the Lemon Chicken, but diners and Chinese-Canadian restaurants are siblings …

In my continual series of confessionals, I have to admit I watched an entire CFL game last night. After years of training us to watch Hockey Night in Canada, the CBC has realized that Saturday night in the summer can be a sports night, too. About time.  •  The game was at the recently expanded …

A few weeks ago, when I was back in PEI, Steve Garrity asked me to rethink my post on Dave Weinberger's column in the June edition of Wired in which I wrote:  •  “In another article called "Copy Protection is a Crime", David Weinberger makes possibly the most naive stand on any legal issue I have …

Do you think the boys have summer jobs at the think tank?  •  This struck me the other day. Or maybe it is a portrait of the artist as a young man. Sure, the yellow hair has thinned and greyed. Sure the squinty eyes finally got to an optometrist. But that squint and that chin - GRAMPA!

As my life as PEI resident comes to a close - the water test was clear - I thought I would pull an old chestnut out of the photo album from one of my first "adult" experiences in the Province.  •  Taken in 1986, it shows your gentle correspondent in repose on the beach at dawn after about 14 hours …

I like the BBC website but I have come across an irritating and somewhat ironic error. The BBC World site for its IT related show Click On-Line has one of those ticker tape thingies running along the top. Usually these things alert us, in seven words or less, to news about which we will soon …

While I usually do not like top ten lists, usually don't find humour sites humourous and, despite the name of this blog, am not particularly driven by demographics, this list is not far off the mark: "looking backwards in a station wagon". Gold. We still use the Quazar top loading VCR.

It appears only one UK or US politician has survived the last few months with his integrity enhanced - Robin Cook: consider this article to this one about Rumsfeld's view that facts always change - jeese, Donnie...if they change they are either not facts or you don't know enough enough of them …

From this morning's Kingston Whig-Standard in a story about efforts to counteract the decline in local tourism from America and elsewhere:  •  “...popular Internet search engine Google was paid to rank the www.kingston-itsabouttime.com Web site high in Google searches so that people who are …

As shown on BoingBoing today, apparently a map of publicly available information is a national security threat in the USA. Does this situation not indicate the problem a free society faces in addressing undefined terrorism with all the common sense of Chris Elliot's Panicy Man character from early …

Working in law and business, one is confronted in magazines, newsletters and websites by supposedly helpful but ultimately meaningless graphics like this one:  •  What does the image say to you? I would think the older balding guy is begging for his job after the demographically correct downsizing …

Well, it was pretty damn good. The setting was great - the front lawn of Ottawa City Hall on a sunny July evening behind the stage to the left was DND HQ and to the right Ottawa U. As the concert started around 7:45 pm, the setting sun broke through and the stage was lit up in yellow then orange …

Today I am doing something I have wanted to do since 1977 - seeing Elvis Costello live.   He is playing the Ottawa Blues Fest this evening with the Imposters, 2/3's of his band from the second lp on, the Attractions.  •  I remembered on the drive up that I had an intense Elvis experience in grade …

Directions to the Downtown LCBO in Kingston, Ontario.  •  I am a lucky guy. The main LCBO in Kingston sits between my work and my car park. When the snow is swirling, a half of East India Sherry might be just the thing. When, like today, Ohio's factories and the earth's axis conspire to make the …

There is a PDF available of a new Reporters Without Borders report on control and criminalization of internet use in the un-free world at this page. I think if you are going to drink coffee, you should appreciate who works for what to get it in your mug. If you are going to use the internet, you …

Canada is like a different country according to the Washington Post. Go figure. When I was a kid and Trudeau was Prime Minister, we knew we were not the States and that we did things differently, and not just with the beer or saying "eh" from time to time. Along came Mulroney in the 1980's and …

One of the neat things about this picture from the 1930's of my grandfather-in-law Stuart Penny and his brother Rae at the end of a day's hunting at Honey Harbour, Ontario is that I have two of the decoys they used, one with buckshot in its butt.

...and I am going to quit playing for a while. 11 days off. Drove for 4 of them. 3300 km or so. Other 7 full of cleaning out the house which appears to have sold pending closing. Some thoughts from between Kingston and PEI, the length of the St.Lawrence:  •  The two best looking parts of Canada on …

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