The INAC Web Site

Step One: Google "Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples". Result:

Step Two: Click on the top link. Result:

At least it helpfully directs me to Google to find the Single Most Significant Report that has Ever been Associated with The Organization that is now called Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. I wonder what search terms I would be likely to put into Google? This is bad web site management,they should include a link to forward people to the correct page and not break their old links.

Does it really rain less in Victoria than Vancouver?

Victorians may complain about the weather, but the one thing they'll consistently tell you is:

"At least we have less rain than those Vancouverites!"

I wondered: Is that true? Turns out that it is.

Data: http://clip2net.com/clip/m6907/1226112817-clip-14kb.png

It's been sunny almost every day since school started. But that's not going to last.

Death of a President

We've all seen this meme going around lately. I want to put it in historical perspective.

43	Number of presidents since George Washington
17	Number of assassination attempts on presidents during that time (wiki)
40	Percentage chance someone will try to kill you if you're president

We've forgotten about a lot of these. Here's a story of just one:

April 14, 1972: Milwaukee, Wisconsin native Arthur Bremer arrived in Ottawa, Ontario on April 10 and spent five days in Canada's national capital in an effort to shoot and kill President Nixon, who was visiting the country during this time. On April 14, Nixon made a public appearance in a limousine at Parliament Hill, which Bremer attended, carrying a loaded revolver in his pocket. The presence of Vietnam War protesters and Canadian nationalists, however, led to increased security surrounding the President, and Bremer had great difficulty getting within firing range of Nixon. He did manage finally to get close enough, but the President was traveling by in his limousine with the windows closed, and Bremer was unsure whether any bullets would go through the glass of Nixon's limo. As a result, he didn't open fire and the President sped past unharmed. The following month Bremer shot U.S. Democratic Presidential candidate George Wallace, lodging a bullet in his spine and leaving him paralyzed from the waist down for life. (source)

When you don't have the power of eminent domain

The Chinese Nail House:

(Wa)let it be

After much derision, and in a momentous ceremony, I retired my wallet to the garbage today and picked up another, sleeker, less hole-y one. End of an era. Whenever I looked in the last one I'd see the stickers that I'd gotten - in Katimavik and as a thank you at a Xerxes debating tournament. Now I see barren leather.