Weblog and Playground of Gord Fynes

This probably isn’t news for anyone outside of Canada. Yes, it’s that guy from the Apple …And I’m a PC television ads, resident expert on The Daily Show and contributor to NPR’s This American Life. Just in case you hadn’t already picked it up, John Hodgman’s The Areas of My Expertise audiobook has recently become available on the Canadian iTunes as a free download, at least for the time being. So, if you’ve a Canadian address, snap it up now and enjoy all 37 discs worth. Bonus points that it’s listed as “self-development”.

I popped by Douglas Coupland‘s website yesterday to discover that some of his artwork will be appearing here in ten Queen Street West streetcar shelters as part of the CONTACT Toronto Photography Festival in May. Not just that, there’s also mention of a new novel, _The Gum Thief_, due out in the fall. On top of all that, there’s also a one-hour television pilot based on his last novel, JPod, now in the can. Hot damn! He also sums up his ads for Blackberry as a way to raise funds for Vancouver’s Contemporary Art Gallery. Oh yeah, and it looks like Everything’s Gone Green will finally be in theatres this spring.

In North America, when you talk about the _big one_ with regards to earthquakes, it’s usually about the San Andreas fault and something to do with California falling off into the sea. With the devastating earthquake and subsequent tsunamis of December 2004, it became more apparent that even west coast Canadians were at risk of such after affects. But huge Canadian earthquakes? Nah.

Not to scare the living b’Jesus out of our west coast brethren, but today’s _Globe and Mail_ is reporting the possibility of a big one hitting Vancouver Island… real soon-like.

bq. Scientists have alerted British Columbia’s emergency-planning department to the possibility of a catastrophic earthquake striking the province’s southwest coast next week.

While the probability of a quake is still low, rapid strides in earthquake detection have given federal scientists with the Pacific Geoscience Centre on Vancouver Island greater confidence in their ability to predict when and where one will occur. Garry Rogers, a seismologist at the centre, compared the current earthquake odds to the dangers of driving a car.

“Everyone drives their car every day, and the probability of getting in a car accident is small,” Dr. Rogers said. But during rush hour, the probability of getting into an accident is much higher. “Well, Vancouver Island is now driving in rush hour.”

Well hoooooly fuck!

Oshawa plans Stephen Colbert Day. Just in case Bill O’Reilly is looking for another reason to bash our favourite faux-right-wing pundit, why not over a trip to Canada?

Are Canadian babies ready for their own TV channel? Uh, hello? Whaddya think we have the Simpsons and Family Guy for? Not too mention TVO Kids.

Police use stun guns on greased, naked student. “Welcome back, America.”

Any fellow Canadians know when we’ll get to see the _Doctor Who_ spin-off, Torchwood, on our airwaves? I mean, the _Royal We_ (the CBC) invested in the program, after all.

Nimble drivers exploit disabled parking: “There are more disabled people on Cumberland St. than anywhere in this province.”

Brian Oberkirch chats with Khoi Vinh, design director of NYTimes.com, and his own site, Subtraction.

Merlin Mann’s Hipster PDA™ gets a new peripheral: the Hipster Shuffle™.

Global Comfortabling: Sarah Silverman’s A Very Convenient Truth (featuring a quick glimpse of Mickipedia).

Lego ice cube trays!