Curious??

Look Here !

U want me to sign up over there? I'd love to sign up on a forum where they have a chocolate bar at the top!

OOPS! Sorry! Forgot, you can't post unless you are a member, but all should be able to read the thread. Here is the first post incase I am wrong about the "visibility" of the forum.

Maltese Falcon (over at Team Genesis) Proposed this idea to me and I like it!! We can organize Southern Ontario and other regions could get in on the act too. We would need a central location for easy access and a date which doesn't conflict to much. A Saturday or Sunday I think would be best. If you are interested then please post here or PM me if you like.

Let us see who is interested first before we go any further.

Too late, I'm there now.

---

"I'm trying to maintain a shred of dignity in this world." - Me

Maltese Falcon (over at Team Genesis) Proposed this idea to me and I like it!! We can organize Southern Ontario and other regions could get in on the act too. We would need a central location for easy access and a date which doesn't conflict to much. A Saturday or Sunday I think would be best. If you are interested then please post here or PM me if you like.

Let us see who is interested first before we go any further.

---

DONATE TO SETI

Where's the Cannucks?


I brought beer!

---

---

LETS BEGIN IN 2010

---

Account frozen...

Dat Good Leaf, Mon!

---

Dat Good Leaf, Mon!

Sticky as Maple syrup...

---

Account frozen...

Hey Canadians! We Got Game!


**********************************









Game gives meaning to ‘Riel time' strategy
LAUREN LA ROSE
Canadian Press
June 1, 2007 at 4:04 PM EDT



TORONTO — They may not yet be old enough to cast a ballot to chose their future leaders, but a new game gives Canadian teenagers the chance to change their past by reliving — and even rewriting — their country's history.

"HistoriCanada," touted as the world's first Canadian history computer game, gives players the power to control one of the country's early European or Aboriginal civilizations, allowing them to decide everything from where to settle and harvest their crops to when to wage war or make peace.

The game, an extension of the top-selling computer game "Sid Meier's Civilization III," is divided into three chapters: the arrival of European explorers, the Confederation of the country and building of the nation and expansion to the West.

"HistoriCanada" includes an in-game version of the "Canadian Encyclopedia," the "Heritage Minutes" video series and links to the game website where players can learn about how events in history actually transpired.

A screen grab of the HistoryCanada video game is shown in this undated handout image. Makers of the game, launched Thursday after more than 10 years in development, are hoping HistoriCanada will appeal to history buffs and gamers alike. (CP)

“We contextualize everything, and we've broken it into chapters so that people don't veer too far off the track while still having lots of room to play,” said Nathon Gunn, the game's co-creator and CEO of Bitcasters, the media firm that produced it.

Gamers must strategize how to use the resources they're given, whether it's for military, economic or spiritual investments, which could play a role in reshaping how history plays out, said game co-creator Thomas Axworthy, chair of the Centre for the Study of Democracy at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont.

“For a skilled games person, you have a variety of choices, and as a learning tool, your choices have consequences. That's a very important thing to understand in history,” said Axworthy, who served as principal secretary to the late former prime minister Pierre Trudeau.

“The game makes it quite clear it's not predetermined. Individual agency or skill can have a tremendous impact,” he added.

“My working title for the game for a long time has been ‘What If' because if you play it well, the Five Nations Iroquois Confederacy can win, the Hurons can win, the Mi'kmaq can win, and that's a very important lesson.”

Part of the challenge of the game in the project's initial stages was convincing the public that the educational value wouldn't be overshadowed by entertainment, Gunn said.

“In the early days of this project, the large portion of the public sort of saw games as frivolous time-wasting entertainment only with a lot of violence attached to it, and didn't necessarily see the benefits of doing something like this,” he said.

“I would say a good portion of the beginning of this project's life was spent convincing people and spreading the word that games could be used for something positive. And of course, the worm has really turned on that now.”

Marea Olafson, a history teacher in Eston, Sask., 200 kilometres southwest of Saskatoon, learned about HistoriCanada while attending a national social studies and history conference in Edmonton a year-and-a-half ago and kept in touch with the makers of the game in hopes of being able to test it out on her students.

Her wish became reality, and three of her male Grade 9 students tested “HistoriCanada” throughout the year, as well as her Grade 12 class.

Students who were into gaming but who weren't necessarily as excited about history have shown a keen interest in learning more about history since using the game which allows them to truly call the shots, she said.

“I see this game as such an important part of teaching history because it makes it come alive,” she said.

“One thing that I have found that was completely different from this game than I've seen from other games is that the kids are making the decisions ... so it's not like they only have three decisions that they can make, and the game will end the same. It's very exact in the history.”

History was Amber Forno's least favourite subject, but since the Grade 8 student started testing the game about a week ago, she's become hooked on both “HistoriCanada” and learning about Canada's past.

“I know my teacher tried to start teaching us about the First Nations and I wasn't quite getting it, and a lot of the textbook stuff, it was boring, I just wasn't finding it interesting,” said Forno, 13, at the game's launch in downtown Toronto on Thursday.

“Now I know where the settlers came in, what parts of Canada they settle on, so I'm learning a lot more and I'm finding it fun, and it's interesting for me to do.”

Bitcasters is currently seeking a title sponsor to fund the final stage of the project, giving the game away to 100,000 young Canadians.

---

Cigar Boxes Tell the Story of Our Country:


Believe it or not, at one time in Canada, there were over 1,500 seperate cigar makers, each with their own brand. Back before WWI nearly every man, regardless of social class, smoked a cigar. They were locally made and locally sold. Because there was a good deal of competition, cigar boxes used the new art of lithography to stand out on the shelves and attract customers.

You can find all sorts of interesting Canadian Cigar boxes (and American ones, too) at the Canadian Museum of Civilization's site. Here's just a small sampling of what you'll find there.

http://www.civilization.ca/tresors/cigares/cigarbox047e.html

---

Hey Canadians! We Got Game!

**********************************

Oh! I gotta get that addon! I love Civ. Been playing it since it was released for the original playstation and now on my PC. Great find Beets!

---

DONATE TO SETI

Oh Good, Pawly! Let us know what you think of it.


I'm fascinated by the stories behind some of our Canadian cigar boxes. The one you see below is called "Jumbo", by the B.F. Honsinger Company in Saint Thomas, Ontario.

If you look closely, you'll see that one of the two pillars on the right is broken. A folklorist will tell you that a broken colum is a symbol of death. First the pic, and then the story behind it.










On September 15, 1885, Jumbo, the largest elephant ever held in captivity (3.5 metres tall, weighing approximately 6 tonnes, with a trunk 70 centimetres in circumference) was killed by a train while on tour with the Barnum and Bailey circus in the southwest Ontario town of St. Thomas. According to one story, Jumbo and a dwarf elephant, Tom Thumb, had been taken by their keeper, Matthew Scott, for an evening walk by the railroad tracks. Tom Thumb strayed onto the tracks just as an unscheduled train approached. Jumbo protectively placed himself between the train and Tom Thumb, and was killed. Scott wept.

Barnum, who had purchased Jumbo from the London Zoo for $10,000, offset his financial loss by having Jumbo’s hide and skeleton put on display. St. Thomas cigar maker B. F. Honsinger cashed in by marketing a line of Jumbo cigars. Its label featured an image of the pachyderm with Scott standing in the curl of his trunk.

Jumbo’s skeleton is now at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. A giant—in fact, jumbo-sized—statue was erected by the city of St. Thomas in 1985.

---

Oh Good, Pawly! Let us know what you think of it.


I'm fascinated by the stories behind some of our Canadian cigar boxes. The one you see below is called "Jumbo", by the B.F. Honsinger Company in Saint Thomas, Ontario.

If you look closely, you'll see the the broken pillars on the left. A folklorist would tell you that a broken colum is a symbol of death. First the pic, and then the story behind it.










"On September 15, 1885, Jumbo, the largest elephant ever held in captivity (3.5 metres tall, weighing approximately 6 tonnes, with a trunk 70 centimetres in circumference) was killed by a train while on tour with the Barnum and Bailey circus in the southwest Ontario town of St. Thomas. According to one story, Jumbo and a dwarf elephant, Tom Thumb, had been taken by their keeper, Matthew Scott, for an evening walk by the railroad tracks. Tom Thumb strayed onto the tracks just as an unscheduled train approached. Jumbo protectively placed himself between the train and Tom Thumb, and was killed. Scott wept.

Barnum, who had purchased Jumbo from the London Zoo for $10,000, offset his financial loss by having Jumbo’s hide and skeleton put on display. St. Thomas cigar maker B. F. Honsinger cashed in by marketing a line of Jumbo cigars. Its label featured an image of the pachyderm with Scott standing in the curl of his trunk.

Jumbo’s skeleton is now at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. A giant—in fact, jumbo-sized—statue was erected by the city of St. Thomas in 1985."

(from the Canadian Museum of Civilization site)

---

Been quite a while since I had a cigar! Great post Beets!

---

DONATE TO SETI

Curious??

Look Here ! Voting for Park Location now open!!

---

DONATE TO SETI

Pawly: I just had a look at the "OhCanada" forums, and I liked it so much, I registered on the spot.

Good Job, Man!!!

---

Cheers, my Friend!
All are welcome at Oh Canada!

In Cross Border News:

U.S. senators want officials to come clean on rest of passport plan.

Canadian Press
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
CREDIT: CanWest News Service


Two U.S. senators are urging American officials to acknowledge they won't be ready to require passports at the Canada-U.S. border in January.

WASHINGTON - Two U.S. senators are urging American officials to acknowledge they won't be ready to require passports at the Canada-U.S. border in January.

Democrat Patrick Leahy and Republican Ted Stevens say public statements about the January 2008 deadline are adding to the confusion and chaos.

Last week, the United States gave a break to air travellers until the end of September in a bid to clear a huge backlog of passport applications.

Air travel represents a fraction of cross-border traffic and critics say officials are facing another mess if they go ahead with the new ground-travel rules in January.

The House of Representatives is considering a measure that would tie the hands of the Homeland Security Department by withholding US$100 million to implement the rest of the security plan.

Air travellers have officially needed a passport since Jan. 23 to enter the United States. But Canadians who don't have one are still allowed to enter if they can prove their citizenship.

© The Canadian Press 2007

---

DONATE TO SETI

Oh! I gotta get that addon! I love Civ. Been playing it since it was released for the original playstation and now on my PC. Great find Beets!

Yeah me too... luckily this looks like a free download here

---

‘Explosive’ membership growth makes Canadians Facebook fanatics
Toronto is biggest network in the world
BY KELLY ROESLER


Along with hockey and Tim Hortons coffee, Canadians have evidently discovered a new national passion: Facebooking.


Canada has embraced the social networking website wholeheartedly, with nearly three million users logging into Facebook — more than half of them daily. Canada has the greatest number of Facebook users outside of the U.S. Toronto is the largest regional network in the world with 637,956 members. Canadian membership has nearly doubled in 2007 alone, a Facebook official says.


Facebook describes its Canadian growth as “explosive,” and says Canada, along with Britain, is the website’s fastest growing market.


“At its core, Facebook is a place to share information and communicate, and people are really starting to see it as an effective utility in their lives,” said Brandee Barker of Facebook.


*************************************

The Facebook site is:

http://www.facebook.com


I just signed on a few minutes ago. You have to select a region (and you only get to make changes to that twice every two months, including your starting pick) so I reccomend you pick "Toronto, Ontario" first as your region, have a good look around, and then decide if you want to pick a local small area or not. ;)

---

I'm already there. The bloodhounds out there will be able to find me. Make sure to double check your privacy settings when you create an account.

---

DONATE TO SETI

---

DONATE TO SETI