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Visit my new blog: Metropolitan News. Leave a Comment Filed under Don't mind me, Me, Montreal, Montreal News, Montreal Sites, The Montreal Gazette March 18, 2008 
As a print reporter, it’s depressing reading the web some (most?) days. Leave a Comment Filed under News, News Media, TV March 15, 2008 
Steve Faguy has a story in today’s Gazette (and more on his blog) about how difficult Facebook makes it for users to extricate themselves from the “social-networking” site. It’s about Montrealer Steven Mansour, who has documented his efforts to delete his personal information from Facebook’s database. Why anybody would put all that personal information on Facebook in the first place, I’ll never understand. Anyway, just more reason to avoid Facebook.Also today, on Radio-Canada’s Je l’ai vu à la radio, another Montrealer, Jessica Barker, was a guest, talking about how it’s much better to have real friends than Facebook ones. Her $23 “fuck facebook” t-shirts (pictured above) are proving very popular, she says. Leave a Comment Filed under Facebook, Montreal, Montreal Sites, Technology March 12, 2008 
I had a story in today’s paper about complaints by a new sovereignist group, the Réseau de Résistance du Québécois, that Montreal’s St. Patrick’s day parade is too English. The RRQ plans to crash take part in the parade even though organizers say the group is not authorized. RRQ members will be distributing leaflets and waving Quebec and Patriote flags.Here’s a response from a reader who describes himself as a “bitter Irish man living in Montreal.”Too English….I agree.It should be Irish….. it makes me sick when I see a bar by the name of Sir Winston Churchill advertising their events for the celebration.A good read…. thanks.Eddie (bitter Irish man living in Montreal) 10 Comments Filed under Humor, Language, Montreal, Montreal News, My Articles, News, Quebec, Quebec Politics February 15, 2008 
Not sure why this is news but someone has set up a website — Red Dot Campaign – to help Canadians say no to junk mail. The site has a sign you can print out and slap on your mailbox.Two weeks ago, someone left a comment (scroll down to the 10th one) on a previous Don’t Mind Me posting, suggesting people take the advice of Dear Bulk Mailer. That U.S. website suggests you get back at junk mailers by using their no-postage-necessary return envelopes to mail them bricks. The idea is you’ll hurt their bottom line because they’ll have to pay for shipping the heavy packages.Well, according to the the Red Dot Campaign FAQ, that won’t work in Canada. It says: “If the post mark states ‘Return Postage Guaranteed’ the company has paid to get the letter returned at a cost of about $1.25.” Leave a Comment Filed under Junk mail February 11, 2008 
It’s a first for me: a follow to a story that has appeared in the Lee Valley Tools newsletter and on the Home Improvement Show with Jon Eakes show on CJAD. But this school project was too cool to pass up. Here’s the top of the story:Reinventing the wheelTeen builds fully functional bicycle made entirely of wood – even the chainBy Andy Riga, The GazetteMost kids listen absent-mindedly to their grandparents’ childhood stories.Not Marco Facciola.Inspired by his grandfather’s tales of life in Holland during the Second World War, the 16-year-old designed and built a unique school project: a fully functional bicycle made entirely of wood. Yes, even the chain. He used a bit of glue but no metal, plastic or rubber.The bike is making him the toast of woodworking, cycling and environmental websites and may earn him an appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman.“I’ve ridden it only once for 15, 20 feet – I just wanted to make sure I could hand it in as a fully functional bike,” said Marco, a Grade 11 student at St. Thomas High School in Pointe Claire.“It was a bumpy ride because there are no shocks and it’s not like a regular bike where the air in the tires absorb the bumps. But the seat’s comfortable – I carved it to make it fit me.”Marco’s maternal grandfather, Case Vandersluis, often spoke of how as a teenager in Holland he had to build wooden wheels for his bike because tires were scarce because of a wartime rubber shortage.Vandersluis went on to become a mechanical engineer.The rest of my story is here.For more pictures and Facciola’s first-person account of building the bike, read the Lee Valley Tools newsletter article. Or click here, to listen to Facciola on the Jon Eakes show.Speaking of Eakes, back in prehistoric times when I covered technology for The Gazette, I wrote about his very helpful home-improvement website. He still has it and it’s still very helpful. Leave a Comment Filed under Bicycling, Montreal, My Articles, Woodworking February 10, 2008 
I’m three weeks behind on my TV watching so I just caught the Jan. 26 episode of 3600 secondes d’extase, Marc Labrèche’s show on Radio-Canada.One of the skits involves an anglo pretending to be a francophone who tries to bring a petition to Air Canada to complain about its lack of French language services. It sounds vaguely familiar, though at no point did I throw an used tissue at a store window.To see the clip, visit the 3600 secondes video vault and scroll down to “Clifford et Air Canada – extrait du 26 janvier 2008.” (That’s the day before my story ran.) 1 Comment Filed under Language, My Articles, News, Quebec February 6, 2008 
Environment Canada has some nifty new icons (like the one above) on its revamped website but why did they have to redesign the whole @#$%! page?The old page allowed you to see the weather for the week at a glance. Now, you have to hover over the word “details” on the main page for individual daily forecasts, or look at the text version without the helpful graphics for a look at the whole week. Maybe I’m just too cranky and lazy.Here’s how Environment Canada described the exciting changes, effective Jan. 23. Leave a Comment Filed under Weather February 4, 2008 
La Presse columnist Rima Elkouri has a column today with a different twist on the recent language dust-up. She interviewed to Marco Micone, an Italian-born Montreal writer. He has an interesting take on immigrants in Quebec and how statistics are being manipulated. More about Micone here (a bio) and here (a description of his poem, Speak What).Here’s an excerpt from Elkouri’s column:«Périodiquement, on nous replonge dans ce discours de la survivance qui est, selon moi, très passéiste.» Ce discours donne l’impression que, quoi que fasse l’immigrant, quel que soit son comportement culturel et linguistique, il ne va jamais satisfaire la majorité francophone de souche.…Même dans les cégeps anglophones, fréquentés par 40% des enfants de la loi 101, les effets de cette loi se font sentir, plaide (Micone). «J’ai enseigné dans un cégep anglophone pendant une trentaine d’années. Or, pendant les 10 dernières années, on entendait parler français dans les corridors. C’était des enfants de la loi 101 qui avaient fait le choix du cégep anglophone, mais qui parlaient français entre eux.»Ne peut-on pas opposer à cet exemple celui d’élèves d’écoles secondaires francophones qui, dans la cour d’école, parlent anglais entre eux? «La situation est tellement complexe qu’on peut aller chercher les situations qu’on veut pour prouver son point», admet l’écrivain. Tout dépend de la façon dont on présente les choses. «Lorsqu’on veut faire peur au monde, on utilise l’indicateur qui est le plus susceptible de frapper l’imagination.» Si on dit que 3900 allophones, enfants de la loi 101, font le choix du cégep anglais, on peut estimer que 3900 sur 157 000 élèves, c’est une goutte d’eau dans l’océan. Mais si on parle plutôt de 50% d’allophones, c’est plus frappant comme statistique. Sauf que, dans les faits, les 4% d’élèves de langue maternelle française qui choisissent le collégial anglais sont plus nombreux (6000 élèves).Une situation qui rappelle à Marco Micone une discussion qu’il avait eue avec le père de la loi 101 lorsque l’écrivain était militant, dans les années 70. «Un soir, on était cinq ou six au restaurant; Camille Laurin nous avait dit: la raison pour laquelle il faut une loi, c’est bien entendu pour obliger les immigrants à fréquenter l’école française, mais c’est aussi pour empêcher les 10% de francophones qui fréquentent l’école anglaise de le faire. Parce que ces 10% sont bien plus nombreux que tous les allophones.» Leave a Comment Filed under Language, Montreal, Quebec January 31, 2008 
I recently met Danny McFanny or was it Curly McFanny? I can’t tell them apart sometimes. They’re both members of the McFanny Family Singers, a little-known local group with four CDs under their belts. Among my family’s favourite McFanny songs (these are direct links to the MP3s; save them on your desktop, then click to listen) are Stop Farting, Froggy Went to Court, and Montreal. You can download all the songs from all four CDs for free from the group’s website. Because of a technical glitch, you currently can’t download the entire CDs (including the cover art) in Zip files.Here’s the group’s first music video, starring Curly: Leave a Comment Filed under Children's Music, Humor, Montreal, Music January 27, 2008 
I had a piece in today’s paper about my personal undercover language investigation. I was initially going to write it as a blog item but it turned into a feature for the paper.Here’s the top of it:Speaking French in anglo ‘hoods‘Francophone’ goes on shopping spreeANDY RIGA, The GazetteIn Quebec’s long, tumultuous history of language squabbles, it might have been a first.In one corner, me – an anglophone Gazette reporter – trying (politely) to be served in French as I returned some empties and bought a 6/49 ticket in Notre Dame de Grâce.In the other, her – an anglophone cashier for a major grocery chain – insisting on answering in English until finally relenting and addressing me in passable French.It was the only uncomfortable moment in Franco Comme Moi, my bid to see how the other half shops.It’s not quite Black Like Me, the book by John Howard Griffin, where a white reporter underwent medical treatments to look black in 1959 to see what life was like for African Americans.But for a week, I went undercover as a radical, unilingual French-rights activist, speaking only French to store, café and restaurant workers in more-or-less anglophone parts of town.The rest is here. 4 Comments Filed under Language, Montreal, Montreal News, My Articles, News, News Media, Paranoia, Quebec, Quebec Politics January 17, 2008 ![[photo]](http://media.canada.com/gallery/Jan17%20Seville%20Thtr/AMC08%200116%20Seville%202.jpg)
(More Allen McInnis/Gazette pictures here.)In October, I wrote about the old Seville Theatre and the abandoned Ste. Catherine St. West block it sits on. I also posted some comments from readers. Well, the theatre is in the news again. I had a story in today’s Gazette about work being done there this week. Since the owner (Claridge Properties Ltd.) isn’t talking, it’s unclear if this means there is going to finally be some action.Here’s is today’s story:New act for old Seville?Boarded-up landmark is undergoing work to reinforce its facade, suggesting the owners might be preparing to sellAndy Riga,The GazettePassersby got a peek yesterday at the long-shuttered box office of the Seville Theatre on St. Catherine St. W., but it’s unclear whether the landmark building is about to be resurrected.In an effort to reinforce the former theatre’s facade, which is protected by a heritage designation, workers removed wood panels that for years have covered the building at street level.Steel beams and chain-link fencing were installed to support the Ste. Catherine-side wall, as well as a section on Chomedey St., where part of the wall collapsed in 1994.The owners of the building informed the city the work was to be done but they have not submitted plans to redevelop the land, said Jacques-Alain Lavallée, a spokesperson for the Ville Marie borough.The current work is not being performed at the city’s request.“The owners’ engineers recommended it,” Lavallée said.Officials at Claridge Properties Ltd., which bought the theatre and the rest of the block between Chomedey and Lambert Closse Sts. in 2002 for $10 million, did not return calls from The Gazette yesterday.Claridge – an investment company controlled by Montreal’s Bronfman family – initially planned to create an environmentally friendly, mixed-use complex featuring retail space, offices, apartments and condominiums. That plan fell through.The entire block (on the north side of Ste. Catherine) has been abandoned since October, when the last tenant, the Bombay Palace restaurant, moved out.The wall-reinforcement work may be a sign Claridge is ready to sell, said Roger Peace, president of the Shaughnessy Village Association, which represents neighbourhood residents.“We understand they’re trying to fix it up and clean it up to make it easier to sell,” he said.The rest here. Leave a Comment Filed under Montreal, Montreal News, My Articles, News, Seville Theatre January 15, 2008 
While working on an upcoming travel column tonight, I came upon a strange line on a Via Rail website page that features Google maps.“Please note that station locations on some Google maps may not be entirely accurate. We are currently verifying the exact locations of all our stations.“Now, one would think Via knows where its stations are. If it’s referring to the Google maps on the page, is it possible Canada’s national rail service is relying on public maps created by who-knows-who? If so, why on earth doesn’t it just create its own maps? Speaking of trains, I had a story in today’s paper about governments musing once again about a high-speed train along the Quebec City-Windsor corridor (and a tram-train linking downtown Montreal, Trudeau airport and the West Island).Here’s the top of it:Train comes full circle, back into vogueAirport transit line, high-speed T.O. link suddenly feasibleBy Andy Riga,The GazetteTo understand why two long-mulled train megaprojects are suddenly in vogue again, visit Dorval at rush hour.Streams of cars arrive and leave Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport, often in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Motorists speed to and from Toronto on Highway 20. Planes take off for the short hop to Toronto. Travellers wait in long lines for taxis at the airport stand.After decades of debate, study and neglect, some experts say the time is right for the proposed trains: a high-speed Montreal-Toronto rail link, and a light-rail transit line connecting downtown, the airport and the West Island.Why now? Fuel costs are rising, there are growing demands to cut greenhouse gases spewed by aircraft and cars, and society is realizing vehicular traffic is a major drain on the economy.- – -The two train lines were front-page news on Thursday.That day, the Quebec, Ontario and federal governments announced they will spend a total of $2 million to update previous feasibility studies of a high-speed train in the Quebec City-Windsor, Ont., corridor.Premier Jean Charest praised such a train’s “social and economic benefits.”On the same day, it emerged that transit authorities and all three levels of government are studying plans for a “tram-train” light-rail project to provide the first direct public-transit link to Trudeau airport. Serving commuters and airport users, it would run from the West Island to downtown.“It’s a moment of repositioning,” said rail expert David Hanna, director of graduate studies in urban studies at the Université du Québec à Montréal.“In the 1950s, society repositioned itself, saw the automobile as the fact on the ground and basically scrapped public transit and trains, and shifted very radically toward cars.”Now, “I think we’ve turned full circle,” realizing it’s not economically or environmentally feasible to rely so much on road transport and air traffic, particularly highly polluting short-hop flights, Hanna said.The rest is here. 3 Comments Filed under My Articles, News, Public Transit, Trains, Travel January 15, 2008 
On the final day of the last provincial election, I mused in my campaign column about whether Mario Dumont and “the ADQ (would) have to declare as an election expense the Journal de Montréal‘s sensational reasonable-accommodation exposés.”This week, the Journal set its sights on the scourge of unilingual anglos working in downtown stores, and this time it’s Pauline Marois and the PQ rubbing their hands in glee.CBC’s Daybreak had a good piece about the controversy this morning. Click here to listen to the audio (.ram file). Leave a Comment Filed under Montreal, Paranoia, Quebec, Quebec Election 2007, Quebec Politics January 11, 2008 
I don’t want to be a party-pooper but shouldn’t the Agence Métropolitaine de Montréal figure out how to open and close doors on its current commuter trains before it 1) buys a bunch of new train cars; and 2) muses about a grandiose train-tram link between Montreal, Trudeau airport in Dorval, and the far reaches of the West Island?I’m not talking about doors that get stuck on its older cars when temperatures dip below -15 Celsius or so (some locomotives also don’t do well in heavy snow but that’s another story).My beef is with the relatively new (built in 2005; Wikipedia photo above) double-decker cars. I don’t mind having to push a button to open the doors; the problem is with the doors automatically closing after a minute – whether or not someone happens to be in the way. At least twice a day I see people attacked by these doors, struggling to escape until a Good Samaritan comes by and presses the release button. A people-detector like the ones they have in elevators would be a good idea. Leave a Comment Filed under Montreal, Montreal News, Public Transit January 10, 2008 
Infoman - aka Jean-René Dufort, aka Radio-Canada’s (funny) answer to Rick Mercer – pulled off a funny one on Brian Mulroney, getting the former prime minister to sign not one but two copies of his autobiography for people claiming their first name was “Airbus.” One claimed to be named “Chery Airbus” (see above), the other Airbus Jean-Jacques.The segment was on Infoman’s New Year’s Eve special, with a follow up (clip available here) on tonight’s show. Now, Infoman is selling one of the autographed books on eBay, with proceeds going to charity. The starting bid was $100. At last count, there were 16 bids and the price had risen to $305. Leave a Comment Filed under Canadian Politics, Humor, News, TV December 23, 2007 
After Montreal’s first winter storm, the city claimed 45 centimetres of snow fell, while Environment Canada said 36 cm. I wanted to figure out how and why Environment Canada and the city could come up with snowfall estimates that diverged so widely.The story that resulted from my research was published in today’s Gazette (see the bottom of this post). While researching the story, I learned a lot about the white stuff – especially from Jessica Cox, a Ph.D. student who completed a master’s degree on measuring snow density at McGill University’s Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences department.After speaking with her, I was still a bit confused (the story of my life) about why snow is typically heavier and more dense when it’s colder, and lighter and less dense when the weather is warm Her Answer:Density is equal to the mass divided by volume therefore the more water (frozen or otherwise) the flake contains compared to its volume, the heavier it isIt’s because of air spaces in the crystal structure that snowflakes are lighter than liquid water. A solid hexagonal crystal will be heavier than a leafy dentrite crystal (those are the star-shaped snowflakes people usually picture when thinking about snow). However, in warm conditions, super-cooled liquid water droplets can stick to crystal (we call those liquid water droplets rime) and that increases the density of the snowflake.Warm weather can act in two different ways on the density of falling snow. One is if rime forms (as discussed above) and liquid water droplets attach themselves to the crystal. In contrast, warm weather can cause snowflakes to be less dense by individual crystals sticking together in a process called aggregation. This increases the mass of water in the snowflakes but typically not as much as it increases the volume of the snowflakes. Consequently, the density is decreased. This process is quite common and can lead to large errors in the snowfall amounts reported when only liquid water measurements are made.I also came upon many good snow sites. A few of the best:Learn more about snow (Environment Canada) All About Snow, (National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado)SnowCrystals.com (Caltech)Video guide to measuring snow (Colorado State University)My snow-measuring feature and two sidebars ran in today’s paper: Measuring snowfall is not as easy as it soundsAndy RigaMontreal GazetteSunday, December 23, 2007How hard can it be? Snow falls from the sky; you stick a ruler in it once in a while and, bingo, you have a running total.Easier said than done.Just look at the contradictory snow tallies from Environment Canada and the city of Montreal after two major snowstorms this month.Environment Canada measured 72 centimetres. By contrast, the city’s total was 25 per cent higher – 90 centimetres.The big discrepancy stems from differences in how and where they measure snowfall – a seemingly simple exercise that is in fact quite complicated, and not particularly accurate.“Snow is the most difficult weather parameter to measure,” said Environment Canada meteorologist André Cantin.The rest is here .The sidebars:Conflicting totals are products of measuring methodsAndy RigaMontreal GazetteThe city of Montreal and Environment Canada use different ways to estimate snowfall. That often leads to conflicting totals like those announced after Montreal’s first two major storms. Montreal says the city gets an average of 231.5 centimetres of snow every year, while Environment Canada says it’s 217.5 centimetres. Here is a look at the different snow-measuring methods:The cityAs city of Montreal workers flood a rink across the park, Michel Frenette unlocked a three-metre-high chain-link gate topped with barbed wire. It protects one of the city’s best-kept secrets.Inside is a contraption that resembles a large, old-fashioned milk can topped by an upside-down bell. They are held in place by steel wires fastened to the ground; more wires and cables connect the device to a small concrete shed nearby.The facility, in Rosemont’s Lafond Park, is part of a little-known network city officials refer to as “the Montreal Triangle” – three snow-measuring stations the city has run since 1978. The others are in Ahuntsic-Cartierville and South-West boroughs. Keep reading → 1 Comment Filed under Me, My Articles, News, Snow December 18, 2007 
It turns out snow banks really were higher when you were a kid (providing you grew up in Canada in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s), according to the Canadian Cryospheric Information Network. Unfortunately, the study did not go beyond the year 2000.A quote from this CCIN page:Ask any Canadian about snow and they will invariably recall it being much snowier when they were young! … There are many non-climatic reasons for this perception such as snow banks looking higher when you were small, improved snow clearing practices, and a tendency to remember extreme events. However, there is a factual basis to this perception for people who were born in the middle of the 20th Century and did much of their skiing during the 1970s: historical reconstruction of snow cover over North America show that snow cover was at its highest 20th Century levels from the 1950s to the 1970s (Fig. 1), then experienced a rapid decrease during the warm decades of the 1980s and 1990s. Leave a Comment Filed under Snow December 18, 2007 
I’m a big fan of revenge (see previous posts here). But a site recently featured on Montreal City Weblogseems extreme. It pointed to a local website encouraging Montrealers to seek revenge against parking officials, SUV drivers, parking-spot thieves and other ne’er-do-wells by sabotaging their parking meters. The idea is ingenious and diabolically simple and points out a fatal flaw in the system.A quote from the posting (the rest is here):For a little bit of spare change, you can cause minor chaos by abusing the parking meter system here. See, the organization taking care of these meters (STATIONNEMENT MONTREAL) sees no problem with stealing your money. Let’s say you put in $3 for 3 hours…and then come back after 2 hours to add more money so you can head back to the bar. It will eat the 1 hour that was left instead of adding time. It resets it. So now your friendly neighborhood anarchist can walk around popping loose change into the machines and entering the code number of the car/spot you wish to create a parking ticket for. The Green Onions (metermaids) can be there in a minute or two to ticket the guy. 3 Comments Filed under Montreal, Revenge, Technology December 14, 2007 
Yes, I’m obsessed with snow.I’ve come across a guy who can teach the city of Montreal a thing or two about snow clearing. Dave Peterson, an engineer in Batavia, Illinois, has invented a snow plow that attaches to the back of his bike. He uses it to plow the path he takes to get to work.The picture above and the following quote are taken from his site:I have been asked “Why don’t you just drive the car when it is too snowy?” There are many reasons why I decided to try to keep a clear path to ride on; the commute along the bike path is so much more peaceful than driving in traffic, it gives me an hour of (usually) low impact exercise at least 5 times a week, many of the side streets are plowed and the bike path is a small but critical portion of the ride, and so many other people can get out and use the path too. Leave a Comment Filed under Snow, Technology December 14, 2007 
Ho, ho, uh-oh…Last week, I wrote about Microsoft’s naughty Santa. Now comes word that Canada Post has its own nasty Père Noël. From this Ottawa Citizen story:Canada Post ‘heartbroken’ over rude Santa lettersHunt on for ‘rogue elf’Richard Starnes, The Ottawa CitizenFriday, December 14, 2007There was absolutely nothing Ho Ho Ho about the letters Rosalyn Da Costa’s children got from Santa yesterday.In fact, they included filthy messages.They are two of 10, inappropriate letters dropped in mailboxes across Ottawa in the last two days, but there could be more. Yesterday, Canada Post shut down its Write To Santa program across the city while it joins Ottawa police to hunt down the “rogue elf.”“Everybody here is so shocked,” said Canada Post spokeswoman Cindy Daoust. “Disappointed doesn’t begin to describe how we feel.”Ms. Da Costa was far more than disappointed, she was stunned.When she went for the mail at her Coulter Place home in Orléans yesterday morning, she was thrilled to see Santa had answered letters from two-year-old Maya and 10-year-old Colton.“My first thought was to wait until Colton got home from school so he could sit and read them with her,” she said. “I’ve done this every year since he was a baby and he loves getting a letter from Santa.”She was happy she changed her mind.“I told Maya: ‘There’s a letter from Santa just for you, let’s read it’. We sat down on the couch, I opened the letter and began to read. My mouth dropped open: ‘Oh, my god!’ “Each Santa letter Canada Post delivers contains the same main message with a hand-written personal postscript.Maya’s personal “P.S.” said: “This letter is too long, you dumb s—.”“I went straight to Google, got the Canada Post number and called,” said Ms. Da Costa. “A very nice lady at a call centre in Fredericton, New Brunswick, was shocked, and when I told her I also had a letter for Colton and was planning to let him read it when he got home, she said I should open it now just in case.”Ms. Da Costa went downstairs, picked up the letter and returned to the phone. What she read had both ladies gasping. “Oh, my god! Oh, my god!,” they kept repeating.The personal P.S. to Colton’s letter read: “Your mom sucks d— and your Dad is gay”This brought a Canada Post supervisor to the phone.… Leave a Comment Filed under Santa December 14, 2007 
Got something bizarre and creepy in the mail this week. It was a 2008 calendar from a couple of neighbourhood real-estate agents (Marie-Claire Le Pessec and Yvan Pelland) but it wasn’t the usual schlocky type. You know – stock photos of quaint landscapes and big pictures of the agents.On this one, the photos of the agents were there, of course, but the main artwork was a picture of my house. It appears to have been taken early in the fall, with my street address and license plate clearly visible.Not quite as bad as Google slapping a picture of me picking my nose on Google Street View. But it’s still creepy and a violation of my privacy – or am I just paranoid?The calendar was accompanied by a bilingual note. The English version said (the italics are mine): “Dear neighbour, We are pleasd (sic) to offer you this 2008 calendar, personalized with your home picture. This photo is exclusively yours and will not be used for any other purpose. We hope that you will enjoy this calendar and find it useful. Please accept our best wishes for a Happy and Peaceful Season. Marie-Claire Le Pessec and Yvan Pelland.”So the agents obviously knew they were treading a fine privacy line. Then why do it? 2 Comments Filed under Me, Paranoia, Privacy December 13, 2007 
Speaking of snow, I’m working on another story about the white stuff and came upon a cool site that focuses on snow crystals . The site – SnowCrystals.com – is the work of Kenneth G. Libbrecht, a Caltech physics professor who grows snowflakes in a lab in sunny southen California. The above GIF is a time-lapse movie of a growing snow crystal. For more movies, visit the site’s movie page. Leave a Comment Filed under Snow, Technology Older Entries RSS Feed
I’m Andy Riga, a reporter, travel columnist and occasional political writer at The Gazette in Montreal. This blog is a personal site. More about me here.
Check out my other blog, Exploring the Falaise St. Jacques
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