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The thing about going out into the badlands of Alberta and riding your bicycle off the side of the mountain and doing flips where you kick your legs out and such, is the flips isn’t really the hardest part here. The hard part is making it look as great and stylish as Brandon Semenuk does here in Afterlife.
In Canada, “caremongering” groups are being organized to connect helpers with those in need during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The first “caremongering” group was set up by Mita Hans with the help of Valentina Harper and others. Valentina explained the meaning behind the name.
“Scaremongering is a big problem,” she tells the BBC. “We wanted to switch that around and get people to connect on a positive level, to connect with each other.
“It’s spread the opposite of panic in people, brought out community and camaraderie, and allowed us to tackle the needs of those who are at-risk all the time — now more than ever.”
During times of crisis, Mister Rogers urged children to “look for the helpers”. As adults, we need to step up and be those helpers, even though many of us are self-quarantined at home. (via jodi)
Free stock photo of hockey player on phone courtesy of Canada’s Internet Registration Authority.
Cira, the organization that manages the .ca top-level domain, is offering a free stock photo library featuring typically Canadian scenes, like “lumberjack and hockey player discuss quarterly numbers” (above). They also have their version of the distracted boyfriend photo (“hockey player checks out lumberjack while woman in Canadian tuxedo looks on in disbelief”):
as well as “backpackers enjoy poutine”:
(via @legalnomads)
What’s your best guess without looking: How many US states are at least partially north of the southernmost part of Canada?
…
(It’s probably way more than you think.)
…
Ok, I’ll give you two hints…
1. Wyoming is almost *entirely* north of the southernmost point in Canada.
…
2. Part of a state that borders Mexico is north of the southernmost point in Canada.
…
One more big hint: more than 25% of US states are entirely north of Canada’s southernmost point.
So, here’s the answer:
27 US states, more than half, are at least partially north of Canada’s southernmost point. (via @stevenstrogatz)
In a move certain to impact jokes about Canadian stereotypes for years to come, our neighbors to the north are jettisoning the penny. One hopes the United States co-opts this move, because it will be as good for us as Michael J. Fox, Wayne Gretzky, and poutine.
Here is noted penny adversary CPG Grey with more information on the move.
Canada is seeing a small influx of American deserters who would rather not serve in Iraq.
Most of them, like Colby, say they joined the military in part out of patriotism. “I thought Iraq had something to do with 9/11,” Colby says, “that they were the bad guys that attacked our country.” But unlike Hinzman, most did not apply for conscientious-objector status. They tend to say they aren’t opposed to all wars in principle — just to the one they were ordered to fight. It wasn’t until Colby arrived in Iraq that he started to see the conflict as “a war of aggression, totally unprovoked,” he says. “I was, like, ‘This is what my buddies are dying for?’
The Canadian government will soon decide whether or not to let those soldiers apply for citizenship on the basis that the conflict in Iraq is “a war not sanctioned by the United Nations”.
The oil sands of Alberta have created an oil boom in the Canadian province.
And how much oil is there? Estimates bounced around for years until 1999, when Alberta got serious about determining its potential. Based on data from 56,000 wells and 6,000 core samples, the Energy and Utilities Board (EUB) came up with an astonishing figure: The amount of oil that could be recovered with existing technology totalled 175 billion barrels, enough to cover U.S. consumption for more than 50 years. With the new math, Canada slipped quietly into second place behind Saudi Arabia’s 265 billion barrels in oil reserves, followed by Iran and Iraq.
Edward Burtynsky took some photos of the oil sands to accompany the piece. (thx, marshall)
Update: VBS.tv did a report on the oil sands as part of the Toxic Series. Elizabeth Kolbert wrote about the oil sands for the New Yorker late last year; unfortunately only an abstract of the article is available online. (thx, meg, ben, sanj, and greg)
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