This pisses me off

Take a look at the pathetic attempt at a Canadian Flag. It's hideously incorrect in its proportions, despite the US flag being roughly correct. I get annoyed when tourist trinket stores sell incorrect flags, so to hear that Pier 21 in Halifax hosted the Prime Minister and the US President and used horrible flags REALLY annoys me. But I doubt anybody else will even blink.

For the Americans: how would you feel if we had displayed a flag with only 40 stars? Or 12 stripes? Grrr.

The correct proportions and sizing of the Canadian Flag

World AIDS Day was yesterday

...and I missed this bit of news on testing of a therapeutic vaccine. I don't know enough to know if this is huge or just interesting though.

Also: December 1-5 is Aboriginal AIDS Awareness Week. Check out the poster (PDF).

Musings on Traffic

A letter to the editor in the Herald today, not written by gueny, reminded me that the Armdale Rotary (a.k.a. weirdest traffic circle on Earth) is changing its rules. It will be acting like most other rotaries, rather than the surreal, prisoners'-dilemma-esque yield-and-proceed arrangement.

First, soma haikus about the Armdale Rotary.

Next, here's someone who claims that he's never, in thirty years, seen a single accident on the Rotary. I only used it once every couple months over four years and I've seen a couple!

Apparently, rotaries merge-on-entry, whereas roundabouts yield-on-entry. The things you learn when you're supposed to be working.

Finally, here's a fun page that the Regional Government of Waterloo put together. We're getting roundabouts here, and while it's not obvious, I'm sure everyone's in total shock over it. At least, that would be the traditional Maritimer approach. :) There are even ads on the buses telling people about them. Anyway, on this page there are Flash demos of how you're supposed to act in a roundabout! What fun.

I'll show that PMO who's boss.

So I bitched to Pier 21 about the flag a couple hours ago, and they've just written back. They're forwarding my complain to the Prime Minister's Office, which was responsible for the design of the flag. Excellent! Further bulletins as events warrant.

What makes Google tick...

A very geeky article for the computer scientists in the crowd.

Uh-oh

Faulty [energy-saving] light bulbs pose fire hazard

News release

Number of these very bulbs in our home: 6

UPDATE: Be sure to check the brand and serial number of your bulbs! It's not just ANY energy-saving bulbs, it's just these specific ones.