The ultimate in Venus transit videos, from NASA via badastronomy. You'll want to select HD and go full screen:

Click to view

also, a photo gallery -- there are some very clever compositions in here.

Oops: "Space shuttle Enterprise suffered minor wing damage on Sunday (June 3) when it collided with the navigation guides for a New York railroad bridge during the first ( Read more... )

I just remembered something I'd forgotten to comment on in my SCF diary: at various points during the trip I found myself in a bar/pub in Vancouver (the oddsmakers take a beating) and on at least three occasions they brought us separate checks without our even asking for them -- in one case we had 6 people and they brought us 6 individual receipts ( Read more... )

Too soon?

Jimmy Kimmel show, by way of the newsgroup.

Click to view

I arrived back in Vancouver today, and after having walked past it numerous times last week, I finally had lunch at the Japadog on Robson St. today.


( Read more... )

Flying bear kills two Canadians in freak accident

OTTAWA (Reuters) -- Two Canadians died instantly in a freak accident when a car hit a 440-pound (200-kg) black bear and sent the animal flying straight through the windshield of an oncoming vehicle, local media said Wednesday ( Read more... )

via the always-hilarious Kurtenblog Friday sports chat, a riding in Quebec elected a rookie MP who doesn't speak French, lives hours away in Quebec, and hardly campaigned at all (including taking a vacation in Las Vegas):

Elections Canada has cleared the way for Ruth Ellen Brosseau to take on her new job as a Quebec MP -- for a riding she lives ( Read more... )

Nice Christmas gesture: on hearing that today's Bills-Pats game was under threat of local TV blackout, a local businessman bought up all the remaining tickets so that the game would be shown on TV, and donated the tickets, which "will be distributed to various military and local youth charitable organizations in the Western New York community ( Read more... )

A Calgary man faces criminal libel charges for criticizing the police apparently on a US web site ( Read more... )

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/06/arar-supreme-court/

The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to review the dismissal of a lawsuit brought against the government by a Canadian citizen who, under suspicion of being connected to Al Qaeda, was sent by U. ( Read more... )

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/100310/sports/csports_us_aircanada_hockey

Canada's largest airline has learned it sometimes has to take a back seat to the country's biggest sporting passion, ice hockey, the head of Air Canada said on ( Read more... )