Did you know a Canadian invented the first personal computer?
I didn’t.
Canadians tend to be kind of quiet about accomplishments.

It never made a rich man of its inventor, Mers Kutt, who still works with computers and ekes out a living from his Toronto house.

But the MCM-70 Microcomputer, unveiled by Micro Computer Machines 30 years ago today and built at least four years before the Apple, has been recognized as the first of its kind in a recent issue of IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, a respected journal based in the United States.

Thank you Mr. Kutt.

Just the facts
Maybe it’s just me….but I’ve noticed since 2001 that our neighbours to the south are looking outward a bit more.
We, your neighbours to the north actually aren’t more polite. A world travel survey showed that US travellers are more polite than Canadians. Maybe we are just more polite on our own soil.
More Canadians head to the states for a green card, than Americans heading north to settle in.
Statistics Canada is the government department that compiles all the wierd and wonderful information about us.
Here are the bare facts….

Canada’s population increased by more than 250,000 from Canada Day 2002 to Canada Day 2003, a Statistics Canada report says. The new population mark now is 31,629,677.

Life expectancy of Canadians also increased for men and women.

A woman born in 2001 can expect to live 82.2 years, a man 77.1 years.

As you know, we live on a pretty big chunk of land, the second largest in the world. So it isn’t very crowded here yet, but 90% of the population lives within a couple of hundred kilometers of the 49th parallel.
When you hear news about Canada in the US it’s usually about Quebec soveignty or western separation or our government complaining about trade.
Did you know neighbour, that we are your largest trading partner? 87% of our goods and services go to the US.
I know most of you are completely unaware of the role we play in the grand scheme of your lives, and I do think, most misinformed American media aside, many of you are learning. That’s ok, most Canadians don’t know either. I really wish your media wouldn’t get in such a flap when a politican puts their foot in their mouth and makes a stupid comment…we don’t.
And yes, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and the Yukon are on the tundra. However it isn’t all ice and snow up there.
And the reason Ontario makes all the noise is because most of the major media and commerce is centered in the province.
Toronto is not the capital of Canada, Ottawa is.
Federally and in a couple of provinces we have two official languages, but about 100 different languages are spoken, and only a few million are bi-lingual in French and English.
Here is how the population breaks down between the provinces and territories.

Ontario - 12,238,300
Quebec - 7,487,169
British Columbia - 4,146,580
Alberta - 3,153,723
Manitoba - 1,162,776
Saskatchewan - 994,843
Nova Scotia - 936,025
New Brunswick - 750,594
Newfoundland and Labrador - 519,570
Prince Edward Island - 137,781
North West Territories 41,872
Yukon 31,060
Nunavut 29,384

No, there won’t be a pop quiz.:^) Any questions?
source CBC

Baghdad blast
A Somalia hotel employee was killed in a bomb blast at a Baghad hotel that houses an NBC crew. Canadian sound technican David Moodie, who is working for the network was slightly injured. The network personnel are the only people staying at the hotel, but US military personnel say it’s too early to say if the 12 NBC workers were the targets.

And the cat came back…..
Ted the cat went missing ten years ago. He found his way home last week.
And it really is Ted…his owner had a microchip implanted in his shoulder.