Thoughts on culture, education, and having been a Canadian in the US

Today’s the 90th anniversary of Vimy Ridge, perhaps the most important battle in Canadian military history.

Lots of media coverage going on about this in Canada, but here are a few links from the CBC site for some great current and past coverage.

Satan started the play by squishing Paul Martin [in] the right corner

(an auspicious start to my birthday, wouldn’t you say?)

If you scroll down to my Advising entry from a few days ago, you’ll see that I’ve just added more advising times for April 9 and 10. If you’d like to make an appointment, please e-mail me and I’ll add you to the list.

from the cool site I just discovered: teachertube.com

If you haven’t seen the original video by Carl Fisch that inspired this one, make sure to watch it. I’m also rather fond of the “Did You Know?” Winipege remix

Check out this time lapse video of the last 24 hours on a webcam from West Vancouver.

I only wish that were the weather here right now, where it is snowing–again….

(discovered this webcam via the canadapodcasts.ca blog)

Lots of interesting facts in this editorial that non-Vermonters might not know, but I don’t think you’ll see the state secede any time soon. Now, if they were lobbying to get Vermont to join Canada, that might be another story…. 😉

The Once and Future Republic of Vermont – washingtonpost.com:

Vermont seceded from the British Empire in 1777 and stood free for 14 years, until 1791. Its constitution — which preceded the U.S. Constitution by more than a decade — was the first to prohibit slavery in the New World and to guarantee universal manhood suffrage. Vermont issued its own currency, ran its own postal service, developed its own foreign relations, grew its own food, made its own roads and paid for its own militia. No other state, not even Texas, governed itself more thoroughly or longer before giving up its nationhood and joining the Union.

Today’s the day…. Here’s what Dave had to say about the band’s final show tonight on CBC’s Radio3

One of the most inspiring teachers I’ve heard speak is Dr. Frank Robinson from the U of Alberta‘s Faculty of Agriculture, Forestry, and Home Economics. He’s just won one of Canada’s prestigious national 3M teaching fellowships (faculty from the U of A, by the way, have won more than any other university). Were I back at the U of Alberta, I think I’d be wanting to sit in on his course on a regular basis just to watch him teach.

This part of the article about the 3M winners in Macleans magazine made me smile…

A compact, wiry man with a police officer’s moustache, Robinson could be called slight were it not for a quiet, off-the-wall kind of charisma—one that finds expression in asking the sorts of questions that, initially at least, appear to come from the absurdist end of agriculture. “Why do cattle eat their placenta? Do they like the taste or is it peer pressure?” Or try: “Can horses fake pregnancy?” Or: “How many cows would it take to power your home theatre system?”

Congrats, Frank!

From today’s Globe and Mail:

Canadians are more likely to read a book than attend a movie, and they’re visiting art galleries and historic sites more. At least that’s what appears to have been the case two years ago, according to an analysis released yesterday of a “social survey” of 10,000 Canadians completed by Statistics Canada in 2005.

The analysis by Hill Strategies Research Inc. of Hamilton found that, in 2005, 17.4 million Canadians 15 years of age and older — or 66.6 per cent of that total population group — read at least one book in the course of 12 months. In fact, about four in 10 Canadians read at least one book a month in 2005. By contrast, in that same period, 15.9 million Canadians (61 per cent) went out to see at least one movie in a theatre or at the drive-in.

Wow, this impresses me, although I would still like to see more Canadians reading. And, of course, we really don’t know what they are reading. Nevertheless, the fact that we have 40% of Canadians reading at least a book a month is a good start. I think the question now is “What can we do to increase those numbers and encourage more people to read Canadian books?”

Does anyone out there know what the similar stats are for the US?

More articles today about tomorrow night’s final show by the legendary Rheostatics.