Canadian GDP by Industry, April 2006

For the total economic output nerds in the house:



Note in particular the contraction in mines and petroleum. Take that King Ralph!

Hit Statistics Canada for less ridiculously shallow and spiteful analysis.

• Unions support Bombardier deal [Globe and Mail]


• Library Thing got BoingBoing'd (also Wall Street Journal'd) today, and has ground almost to a halt. Hopefully some of the new users will pay, so the system can scale to accomodate the onslaught...


• Barcoder.nu would be cool if I could get it to work.


• Jane Pitfield hearts Guardian Angels [The Star via Spacing]


• Google Spreadsheets?


• Busted: The [US] Citizens' Guide to Surviving Police Encounters - "That's right Valerie, getting busted is no party!" [Google Video via bOINGbOING]

• Hot damn: I want me some Bump Top [via Kottke]


• The Impact of Traffic on Health [Toronto Public Health via Spacing]


• From Paved, Stop Iggy.com and this: "indignation over community standards have been superseded by online access to every fetish, which means the most offensive thing a performance artist can do is seem boring to their potential critics."


• Vaughan gaining ground on Kennedy in Ward 20? [National Post]


• Ontario's trillium gets a make-over - "it's just coincidental that it resembles the Liberal [party logo's] rendition of Ontario's official flower" [Toronto Star]

• NDP motion makes Dalai Lama third-ever honourary Canadian citizen [Toronto Star]

• Unpossibly, PRI's This American Life is even better than the hype [now-dead RSS via bOINGbOING]


• "Since the Jamestown gang is gone, they're fighting to control the turf..." [Toronto Sun, Toronto Star]


• Saddam loses a third defence lawyer to murder: he "had been shot eight times and there were signs of torture -- both his arms were broken." [Reuters, NY Times]


• Ambrose should quit: NDP [National Post]

• Glass from CO2? [New Scientist via Kottke]


• Wife rental (i.e. domestic/sex-slave leasing) on the rise in India? [AP via Toronto Star, CP via Canada.com]


• Work begins on arctic seed vault, because "[bio]diversity is imperilled not just by a cataclysmic event, such as a nuclear war, but also by natural disasters, accidents, mismanagement, and short-sighted budget cuts." [BBC News, Reuters, Financial Times]

• Urban Explosion: Trace the past and future growth of the world's biggest cities [BBC World Service]

• Free: Racist cat [Craigslist Toronto]

• "At least three-quarters of Nacho Libre's jokes rest on the assumption that being Mexican is inherently hilarious." [Slate]


• Picked up Electrelane's "Two For Joy" as an iTunes freebie ages ago, but didn't give 'er a try until today... listen!

• Somalia's Islamic militias reach out to West [Washington Post]


• "Britain's highest court ruled Wednesday that Canadian William Sampson and three Britons who say they were tortured while imprisoned in Saudi Arabia cannot sue Saudi officials over their ordeal." [Toronto Star]


• Google's giant super-computing plant revealed [Times of London]


• Burroughs' Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information, 1889: Universal Assistant and Treasure-House of Information to be Consulted on Every Question That Arises in Everyday Life by Young and Old Alike! [manybooks via bOINGbOING]


• Postal contractor charged after guns go missing [Toronto Star]

• Pitfield: City should "phase out" unions [Globe and Mail, Toronto Star]

• Are a dozen new reactors McGuinty's $40bn cure for Ontario power woes? [Toronto Star]


• Temp worker relative fired in wake of terror arrests [Toronto Star]


• iPauseworthy is, it seems, Urban Dictionary worthy.


• Cotler, Dosanjh back Rae; rivals target Ignatieff in debate [Globe and Mail]


• So long, Lakeview Generating Station [Toronto Star]

• After Conservative EnerGuide cuts, NDP touts 'greener homes' plan.


• Canadian Tire launches separate site to pimp at-home solar, wind power generation.

• 3 detainee suicides at US' Guantanamo Bay prison camp [Voice of America, New York Times, Reuters, CNN]


• John Hodgman, professional writer, deftly embodies the dorky PC in these Apple ads. See also: 700 hoboes @ Flickr.


• Microsoft to join Internet Archive in digitizing U of T libraries' public domain collection [Toronto Star]


• The Great No-ID Airport Challenge [Wired]

69 stations update...

56 stations down and 13 to go with just 49 days left before time runs out.

I've completed the Sheppard and Yonge-University-Spadina lines, but still need to finish a few Bloor stops and the entire Scarborough RT.

Can I do it?

More importantly, how best to celebrate my triumph and/or tragic failure?

Tags: Subway, transfer, quest, TTC.

• As Test-Taking Grows, Test-Makers Grow Rarer [New York Times]


• FDA spurns Glaxo migraine drug, seeks safety data [Reuters]


• Having just bought it, I was interested to see what Cory Doctorow has to say about Douglas Coupland's JPod.


• Michael Geist on campaign contributions by the copyright lobby to Heritage Minister Bev Oda [via bOINGbOING]


• If only Citizen's bluetooth watch /w caller ID weren't so fugly! [Engadget]


• Take 'pro looking' photos, get screwed by a copyright-paranoid Target [via Kottke]

• Can your computer handle Windows Vista? Find out, if you care dare.


• "Read about Henrik Ibsen in 18 languages and in 91 countries" here.

TTC Overload!

• Biodiesel, first tested in Sept. '04, now in all 1,700 TTC buses [News Release]


• Citing 'political interference', TTC head Ducharme resigns [Toronto Star, Globe and Mail]


• Globe's John Barber hits that TTC vice-chair (and councillor, and hardcore NDPer, and "fluent in French and Arabic") Giambrone's management backing (if not selling out the transit union per se) bodes well [Globe and Mail]


• Pepsi Access is being pimped using audio enabled posters on the subway? Neat. [A/D Goodness via Make: via BlogTO]

• Groundwork Guides: Being Muslim, Empire, Climate Change, Genocide [Groundwood Books / Anansi]

• Windows smashed at Rexdale mosque [Toronto Star, Globe and Mail]


• Faces on Places: A Grotesque Tour of Toronto [Anansi]


• "A man shouting that God would keep him safe was mauled to death by a lioness in Kiev zoo after he crept into the animal's enclosure..." [Reuters]

• Another TTC strike in the works for tomorrow? [AM640]


• Dates and times to check out the new subway mockup


• Shredding scissors [via bOINGbOING]

• Must check out The Tile Project this weekend [via BlogTO]


• Captain Copyright, Access Copyright's cartoon indoctrinator, pirates Wikipedia? [bOINGbOING]


• 10 hurt in subway mishap [Toronto Star, Toronto Sun]

Novel & Thrilling

Tags: Library of Congress, public domain, aeronaut.

• If Downsview Park matters, why has nothing begun? - "Already the subway reaches the park, but so far there's little reason for anyone to use it..." [Toronto Star]


• Cool? Cool. [Torontoist]


• Twins, 11, donated $10,800 to Volpe's campaign [Globe and Mail]


• Alberta pharmacists earn right to prescribe drugs [National Post]


• Commuter challenge, you say? [via BlogTO]