February 11th is turning out to be quite the day in history. In addition to being Thomas Alva Edison‘s birthday, it was also the end of the Yalta Conference in 1945, which was trying to deal with post-war Europe.

More recently, it’s the anniversary of the Iranian Revolution in 1979, which saw the overthrow of Iran’s monarchy and its replacement with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Nelson Mandela was released from prison on this day in 1990.

And now we can add the downfall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak after 18 days of anti-government protests in Egypt. I hope the aftermath doesn’t get out of control and that the Egyptian people can rebuild and move forward.

Quite a day in history, eh?

A tip o’ the hat to Al Jazeera who had this photo on their site.

Gather round children for I am going to tell you about the Good Old Days of Television.

Once upon a time, television was a truly wonderful thing. Even though there were no high-definition televisions and there was occasionally the odd patch of static, the picture was basically clear and nothing interfered with watching whatever was on. Well, except of course for Moms telling their children to “go outside and play”. (Yes, outside, children. … Oh, don’t cry, children – we really didn’t mind going outside.)

What do I mean that nothing interfered with watching what was on? Oh, that’s simple, children. I mean that the television stations didn’t add anything to the pictures like station logos or mini-ads.

No, not even a simple station logo, children.

For example, if I was watching Outsourced on Global in The Good Old Days, the only thing that would have been on the screen was Outsourced and nothing else. No discrete, semi-transparent Global TV logo in the corner and definitely no banners at the bottom of the screen advertising the upcoming show that are positioned in such a way as to obscure the subtitles that are occasionally used in the show.

Like happened in yesterday evening’s broadcast of Outsourced. Dammit! (Oops… sorry, children – I meant to say “darn it”. You shouldn’t swear, children.)

These banner ads are getting out of control. With the advent of HDTV, they seem to have become more intrusive, even in non-16:9 format shows. And lately, I’ve noticed that some of the annoying animated banners are being accompanied by sound that is mixed into the soundtrack of the shows. Both incredibly annoying and completely unnecessary.

Fortunately, they aren’t there all the time, but it seems rare these days when there’s not something being superimposed on the shows.

Sometimes I long for the Good Old Days, children.

According to Wiarton Willie, Spring is coming soon. Apparently, he poked his head out of his burrow this morning and failed to see his shadow, which is the portent of an early Spring. The cynics among you will appreciate the irony that the weather in Wiarton was so inclement that people gathered under a giant tent to await the news. (Presumably, Willie did not benefit from the tent.)

And he’s not the only Marmota monax who failed to see its shadow. Nova Scotia’s Shubenacadie Sam and Puxatawney Phil in Philadelphia both failed to see their shadows, meaning an early Spring is on its way for those parts of the world, too. I’m sure that Nova Scotians were particularly happy by this news given the abysmal winter they’ve had so far this year.

Alberta’s Balzac Billy, on the other hand, apparently saw his shadow and fled to the safety of his burrow. So, it seems that Alberta’s in for another six weeks of winter, while the rest of us can toss away our winter coats, dig the sunscreen out of the cupboard and start basking in the sunshine.

Well… after all the^$!@$% snow that fell today melts!

While  out doing some snowshoeing and geocaching in Pine Grove forest this afternoon I looked back along the trail and saw this scene.

I checked my email when I got home after work and noticed that a new geocache notification for Navan road’s secret stash (GC2MYZ8) by Team Matassa had arrived about half an hour earlier. Given the fact that there are some geocachers in Ottawa who don’t hesitate in dropping everything when a new cache is published, I figured that by the time I could get to it one of them would already have logged it.

When I checked up on it an hour later to see who had claimed the FTF I was surprised to see that it still hadn’t been logged. So, I loaded it on my GPS, grabbed my geocaching backpack and headed out to see if I could find it.

Arriving at the trailhead, I noticed several sets of footprints in the snow leading in the general direction of the cache. As I closed in on the cache, the footprints lead off in a different direction.

Hmmm…

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I’m pleased to report that the van belonging to STRIDE that was stolen has been found in a parking lot on Cyrville Road. I haven’t heard whether there was much damage to it, but hopefully not. Apparently, STRIDE had a number of people willing to loan them a van and a couple of people who were willing to donate a van — a very classy response from the community indeed!

The Globe and Mail has a story about about an eighteen-year old grade 12 student who is championing a proposal to require drivers who have a provisional license, like a G1 or G2, to display a sign with a “P” on it when they’re driving a car. He came up with the idea while on vacation in Australia where they have a similar requirement.

In most cases this wouldn’t be terribly newsworthy, but this isn’t most cases.

Alex Don has used his connections from when he was a page at the Ontario Legislature to garner political support for his proposal. According to the story, five MPPs are supporting this, along with City of Burlington councillors and the chief of Halton Regional Police Service. Also supporting him is a teacher at his high school who coached the school’s soccer team. Two boys on that team were killed in a car accident a couple of years ago. With all this support, there’s a fair chance that his proposal will be introduced as a private member’s bill by Kevin Flynn, MPP for Oakville, in February.

But will it actually result in safer roads? While I’d like to say it will, I fear it won’t. And it might actually have some unexpected consequences.

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