An eclectic assortment of stuff: food, archaeology, fun, books, history, geekery, etc.
Posted in Canada, history & archaeology on Dec 18th, 2009
From Canada.com: Soup can yields details on doomed 19th-century Arctic expedition.
Scientists studying a 160-year-old can of soup found in the Canadian Arctic have detected lead levels in its broth and sealant that are off the scale — further evidence, they say, of the lead poisoning believed to have doomed the 19th-century Franklin Expedition during its [...]
Posted in Canada, history & archaeology on Nov 28th, 2009
From The Ottawa Citizen: Ancient camp unearthed.
A team of archeologists working for the City of Ottawa has uncovered the oldest aboriginal camp yet found within the city limits, including stone tools and pieces of artfully decorated pottery dating from 300 BC to 700 AD.
Archeologists believe that the camp on the Rideau River was used periodically [...]
Posted in Canada, history & archaeology on May 28th, 2009
From the Ottawa Citizen: Vikings visited Canadian arctic, researcher suggests.
One of Canada’s top Arctic archeologists says the remnants of a stone-and-sod wall unearthed on southern Baffin Island may be traces of a shelter built more than 700 years ago by Norse seafarers, a stunning find that would be just the second location in the New [...]
From the National Post: Where you’ve been on Net not private, judge rules.
An Ontario Superior Court ruling could allow police to routinely use Internet protocol addresses to find out the names of people online, without any need for a search warrant.
Justice Lynne Leitch found that there is "no reasonable expectation of privacy" in subscriber information [...]
Posted in Canada on Feb 7th, 2009
From newsweek.com: Worthwhile Canadian Initiative.
The legendary editor of The New Republic, Michael Kinsley, once held a "Boring Headline Contest" and decided that the winner was "Worthwhile Canadian Initiative." Twenty-two years later, the magazine was rescued from its economic troubles by a Canadian media company, which should have taught us Americans to be a bit more [...]
From the Globe and Mail: A copyright call to arms.
In the era of peer-to-peer file sharing, on-demand television and easy copying of video games and movies, Canadians often take for granted the availability and ease of using digital media. It’s hard not to: the sheer amount of digital content available online is astonishing. For many, [...]
Posted in BC, Canada, history & archaeology on Nov 3rd, 2008
From the Vancouver Sun: Petroglyph returned to first nation.
The Snuneymuxw people officially celebrated the return of their salmon petroglyph this week, more than three decades after it was removed by the City of Nanaimo and hauled to a museum.
Snuneymuxw First Nation archeologist Lorraine Littlefield said the petroglyph, carved into a boulder, sat at Jack Point [...]
From csmonitor.com: Québecois: maligned accent may have its roots in royal courts.
Québec’s francophones have long been ridiculed by the Parisian French – the scholars, elites, and aesthetes from the ancestral homeland. They have deemed the Québecois accent an "abomination" of what they consider the most beautiful language.
They shouldn’t sneer.
The Québeckers’ much-maligned accent can be traced [...]
Posted in BC, Canada, history & archaeology on Sep 10th, 2008
From the Nanaimo Daily News: Aboriginal relics destroyed by bikes.
Dirt bikes and all-terrain vehicles are grinding away ancient First Nations artifacts in the Nanaimo area.
Geraldine Manson, with the Snuneymuxw First Nation, said several petroglyphs located near Harewood Mines Road have been pounded by both vehicles and hikers over the years. She hopes a barrier will [...]
Posted in Canada, history & archaeology on Aug 27th, 2008
From the Globe and Mail: Nails, copper scraps first evidence of Franklin’s doomed ships.
A few scraps of copper and a handful of nails are the tantalizing first fruits of the latest search for the ships of the doomed Franklin expedition.
While heavy Arctic winds have hindered crews on the waters where the 19th-century British ships are [...]
Posted in Canada, history & archaeology on Aug 24th, 2008
From the National Post: Wreck could be of crucial ship from War of 1812
A Lake Ontario shipwreck hunter claims to have discovered a legendary vessel from the War of 1812 — the 32-metre sloop HMS Wolfe, the star of one of the most dramatic naval battles on the Great Lakes at the height of the [...]
Posted in Canada, history & archaeology on Aug 22nd, 2008
From the Edmonton Journal: Ancient suspects cleared in Viking mystery tale.
It’s the oldest whodunit in Canadian history, and new research has conclusively ruled out one of the suspect aboriginal groups behind the retreat of Viking would-be colonists from the New World.
A scientific redating of the eastward migration of the Thule — ancestors of modern-day Inuit [...]
Goodness! Somebody’s growing truffles on Vancouver Island. From the Vancouver Sun: Wait worth it for patient truffles harvesters.
It took seven years for Betty and Grant Duckett to harvest their first truffle, but for them it was worth the wait.
The couple retired to Vancouver Island after years of raising livestock on the Prairies. They wanted to [...]
Posted in Canada, history & archaeology on Jun 27th, 2008
From the National Post: Inuit oral stories could solve mystery of Franklin expedition.
More than 150 years after the disappearance of the Erebus and Terror — the famously ill-fated ships of the lost Franklin Expedition — fresh clues have emerged that could help solve Canadian history’s most enduring mystery.
A Montreal writer set to publish a book [...]
Posted in Canada, history & archaeology on Jun 20th, 2008
From EurekAlert: Ancient fort opens new chapter in First Nations’ history.
A fortified village that pre-dates European arrival in Western Canada and is the only one of its kind discovered on the Canadian plains is yielding intriguing evidence of an unknown First Nations group settling on the prairies and is rekindling new ties between the Siksika [...]
Hey, Canadians! This needs your attention. From Copyright for Canadians:
Forward-thinking reform to copyright is possible: laws that recognise the growth and importance of the Internet, open source software, and new business models for creators. Canada could take the initiative, and lead the world.
Instead, new legislation proposed by this government will be a complete sell-out to [...]
Posted in BC, Canada, art, history & archaeology on Jun 6th, 2008
From the Globe and Mail: Centuries-old sketch comes home.
He stares at us from centuries past, a clear, unflinching gaze attesting to his status as a great warrior chief of the Musqueam. Strands of long, dark hair curl past his shoulders and he wears a stylish conical cedar hat adorned with feathers.
Call him Qeyapaplanewx. That we [...]
Posted in Canada, books & lit, history & archaeology on May 20th, 2008
From thestar.com: With a little bit of vinegar, rare Bible returns to N.S..
Richard Luckett knew he had a problem when a water pipe burst in his college room where 10,000 books – some dating back 400 years – lined the walls from one end to the other.
"Water is the worst possible thing for books," he [...]
Posted in Canada, DNA, history & archaeology on Apr 28th, 2008
From the Vancouver Sun: Iceman’s family found.
Sisters Sheila Clark and Pearl Callaghan of Whitehorse clutched each other’s hands and blinked back tears Friday as they talked about their ancestor Kwaday Dan Ts’inchi, better known as Long Ago Person Found.
Eight days ago, 17 aboriginal people from northern B.C., Yukon and Alaska were told that DNA testing [...]
From Reuters: School fights to revive native Canadian language.
In a grey, shed-like building on the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve in southern Ontario, Esenogwas Jacobs is getting her kindergarten students ready to head home for the day.
"Gao dehswe," Jacobs says, calling her students to the door.
"Gyahde:dih," she adds, it’s time to go.
Her students [...]
Posted in Canada, environment on Aug 23rd, 2007
From the Times Colonist: Town that banned bags touts golf carts.
The tiny town in northern Manitoba that was first in Canada to ban plastic shopping bags is now turning its attention to gas-powered vehicles.
Leaf Rapids Mayor Ed Charrier wants residents to drive electric golf carts around town instead. "Why would you start your vehicle for [...]
Posted in BC, Canada, DNA, history & archaeology on Aug 22nd, 2007
From the Vancouver Sun: Sea floor off Charlottes may explain how people came to the Americas.
In a Canadian archeological project that could revolutionize understanding of when and how humans first reached the New World, federal researchers in B.C. have begun probing an underwater site off the Queen Charlotte Islands for traces of a possible prehistoric [...]
Posted in Canada, history & archaeology on Aug 21st, 2007
From Macleans: Archaeologists solve riddle of site of original Montreal settlement.
A nondescript brown warehouse filled with old barrels and rickety pallets is an unlikely site for the spiritual heart of a city.
Yet beneath the worn cement floors of one such warehouse lies what archaeologists believe are the first permanent buildings of the settlement that became [...]
Posted in Canada, strange stuff on May 7th, 2007
The more I think of this, the more I giggle. From the Globe and Mail: Mystery revealed: Poppy quarter led to U.S. spy warnings.
WASHINGTON — An odd-looking Canadian coin with a bright red flower was the culprit behind the U.S. Defence Department’s false espionage warning earlier this year, The Associated Press has learned.
The odd-looking — [...]