Non-partisan blog posts – Page 37

Upstate Blogging And Me

I am happy to see that NYCO has reorganized the Upstate Bloggers map. I am pleased to note that I am an honourary upstater – upon which badge [Ed.: …and you do get natty badges] I earned one tiny gold star recently as I helped organize an NCPR outreach session here in Kingston. Who knew there was a blogger in Watertown? If they wave will I see them?

Next trip south to the north comes Saturday to the Antique Boat Museum in Clayton which has a natty new website. Then, on Friday the 16th, Watertown plays Genesee Valley. Good field. I just figured out that Wakefield started his career in Watertown. Who knew?

World Cup Warm-Up Week: How Am I?

It is not without some concern that I note tomorrow is 6-6-6 but I can’t let that take away from my World Cup planning. So far I have established pretty much that there is maybe a game Sunday for the lads in orange. And that is about it. I think I am in Maine for the final om July 9th which means I may have to bear the slings of portland as I try to explain why seven of the eleven guys playing for Brazil have different versions of the name Ronald on their jerseys.

P’raps I will watch some animated highlights of England’s win over Jamaica from the BBC’s Virtual Replay pages so as to get more in the mood. Six to nothing. That’ll be just like the games to come against Argentina or Germany. Sure it will.

The Redesigned CBC.ca

I came across the new vision for CBC.ca and it appears bland is in. Grey upon grey in an exciting vibrant riot of greyness:

The weirdest thing is the use small font of a medium grey on a coloured background for titles. It makes for very squinty reading. Sadly, before the CBC wallowed in white text on a black or other dark background. It was apparently too useful.
Other than that, the use of orange to highlight lesser points of interest on a page is just weird. You would think on the “Canada” news page the most important links are RSS, sign-in and services. Someone in tech clearly had a strong voice at the committee table. Otherwise “new” might have gotten the more visually important link.

I made some other pomposities here.

Terror Arrests

In the middle of the night I heard a US talk show voice telling me the arrests were clear indication that there was a big problem with Canada. Interesting to note that the case involves three tonnes of ammonium nitrate which I wrote about way back here and which is instructive as a review of why a common fertilizer was designed to go boom.

My Own Personalized Virus

The new phenomenon, known as Ransomware, means victims cannot access any of the files stored in their My Documents folder.

I have files stored in the My Documents folder? Oh.

Jetsicles In The News

Imagine my surprise at seeing a jetsicle take such an important place in a moment in Canadian political history. Sadly, NB Premier Mr. Lord did not reference it in his press conference statement:

Mr. Lord warned that “when you put an obstacle like the passport between Canada and the United States, and you start thickening the border between Canada and the United States, you’re hurting our prosperity.”

These are the times in which we need to call on our jetsicle legacy. More on Canada’s jetsicle heritage here.

Men In Big Hats

Some great pictures at the BBC from the time of the building of the Great Eastern in 1858 taken from a new exhibit at the Science Museum in London.

Note to file: Victorian industrialists slouched and wore funny big hats. I think the combination of the slouch and the tall headpieces speaks to their versatility.

The Senate

Do you want to talk about the Senate? I don’t really want to talk about the Senate. But we may end up talking about the Senate soon. I am all for abolishing the thing myself. Any move to give it more power is a move away from popular representative democracy to something like a council of elders. Why bother?

And why open up a constitutional debate? I’d rather go through testing for matters of prostate – which I have by the way and which you all should have. You all do not need a council of elders but you all should have a reasonable sense of the state of your nether regions. Say it. Your bum. There. Said it. That is clear enough.

I’m So Lucky

I caught Franz Ferdinand on Austin City Limits last night. They are still the band of the 21st century.

Baseball In Kingston

This year I am going to take in some local baseball. The Kingston Loyalist Farms Ponies play in the EOBA senior league with teams from Ottawa to Markham. Here is the schedule. Double header tomorrow.

Good hat.