Underreported in the media, but the CBC acquired the Adverse Drugs reaction database from Health Canada, using the federal Access to Information act.
The CBC reported about the evolution of the database on February 17th. CBC’s version of the database is not exactly a copy of the original: It’s streamlined to allow for Web browsing. Secondly, Health Canada stripped out fields to comply with privacy laws.
Since Nova Scotia was dilligently attacked by the Evil Low Pressure Depression Snow Forces ™, yesterday that is, brave Nova Scotians and a Permanent Resident took up their arms and started digging. As in, ‘Yes sir, right-away-sir’.
After an hour and a half fight with snow, windgusts and barking dogs, my wife and I decided to tour around and see what kind of damage was done. The Esplanade, for example, was completely trenched in. The damage at the RBC bank was substantial too, but apparently over there the battle took a ‘Midway’-like turn.
All was well at Sobeys and the Ponderosa. It was here where the Snow Forces apparently were cornered by a guy with a red nose and red hair.
The rest is history, as you can see from these pictures.
I hear there’s another storm making landfall this weekend. This is going to be jolly good fun.
For the company I’m working for I have been thinking of writing software that grabs currency rates from the Bank of Canada.
I’m truly impressed with the openness of the national bank, however, I do not agree with their concept and current (static) implemetation. It’s cleverly obnoxious and add to that, maybe handy for the casual user, but not for companies that need ‘real-time’ information or specific data for a specified range. This is where XML-RPC/SOAP comes in handy, but other protocols would do fine too. Give us the API and I assure we’ll be willing to pay a subscription fee.
Power outages galore around town, except for here. I heard that the start of the street is out of power, so for now we’re lucky. I’m trying to push that luck by preparing steak.
While still snowing out, it looks like the wind has diminished a bit. The car has been covered almost completely which led to the joke that our ‘Hyundai’ had turned into a ‘minivan’. Also, I do not look forward to shovelling: it’s too much. The snow is almost up my knees and at certain spots, higher than that. There’s no way to look out the windows either: the screens caught all the snow and ice. And thinking of it: I don’t mind. Snow is a pretty good insulator, I hear.
update: Supper done. Time to get a power outage.
It 
is
storming out there. Earlier in the morning I hoped the storm had blown over, but (as the picture) shows, it is still picking up and supposed to be getting worse. I hear that the government of NS issued a state of emergency, but the announcement isn’t anywhere yet.
update: The Globe scoops up the announcement of the NS gov. Plows have been ordered off the road too. And a logical conclusion:
“If we’re not out there trying to keep the roads open, then nobody should be out there”
update: Naturally it’s still storming and snowing out here: added second picture (and foregoing Internet Explorer support, I hear) to show the drift and that extra snow slowly piling up.
The Canadian 
weather office has issued a weather warning for Nova Scotia, with winds gusting up to 100 km/h and snowfall between 20 to 50 cm. Blizzard warning the Weather Channel says.
With luck the snow may turn into rain, that is for Cape Breton and environs. Lets hope the power stays on. And if so, with some luck I might be able to make pictures.
With the latest Liberal scandals, there’s an interesting discussion going on about changing Canada’s current electoral system into a proportional representation system.
There’s more on proportional systems over at the PRWeb site. Douglas Amy summarized the pros and cons over here.
“But when considering whether to switch to PR, the key question is not whether PR has some political disadvantages, but whether those disadvantages are outweighed by the political advantages of these voting systems.”
I decided to forego CTV’s feature presentation ‘Shrek’ (I’ve never seen the movie before) and did some coding for the company. I ended up with an ‘autoupdate’ feature and some other small improvements.
Earlier this day, ABC had speed skating in one of their sports programs: the World Championship in Oslo. They showed some footage of funny looking people dressed in orange. Also, I noticed that Bonnie Blair (oh, she was a famous American skater, yes) was pushing the ‘irritating level’ with her commentary. Obviously speedskating is not popular in the US.
Apparently 
they get plenty of snow in Greece, which is beyond normal so to say. Greece literally came to a standstill because of snow blizzards and temperatures below minus 5 degrees (Celsius). The country’s national weather service expected the temperatures to go as low as -18 degrees Celsius.
Sounds like the normal Nova Scotian snow storm, which we haven’t seen this year. I’d like to keep it that way too.
I have been busy the last couple of days at work: son once in a while my collegues could here me yelling ‘Why Do They Hate Us’ repeatedly.
Also the weather seems to be working along: it was cold last evening yes, but the days before, lots of snow have melted. There where a couple of flurries, but it looks like 2004 is going to be a not-too-much-snow-like Winter. Quite the difference, compared with last year’s snowstorms.
Next: Someone is wondering if Alfons is after a bounty. Is he?
As you probably noticed this blog was found by a comment-spammer, which means that (for now) the comments and trackbacks are closed until I’ve found and installed better ways to keep up with this kind of vermin. Thanks for making the day: I suspect that there’s a relationship between the amount of spammers and the American economy (and the world’s).
While looking for historic references to the start of the Korean War, I ran into an interesting FAQ which details the Chinese point of view:
“China’s objective was to keep the hostile American forces away from the Yalu river to ensure a peaceful environment for internal reconstruction. ”
Compare the FAQ with the timeline over here (or go to the timeline).
Belinda Stronach was in Truro. Yes, you heard that right and naturally you can’t find it on the web (link to boring Halifax presency piece). Of course, she was speaking to invited people at a hastily arranged Chamber of Commerce luncheon.
Secondly: it was pretty shitty (mind my words) weather today: snow in the early morning, freezing rain and now plain rainy. The roads were remarkably icy this early morning. I could have skated on the layer of ice.
