A FEW TASTEFUL SNAPS

Dear Tumblr, this is hard to write, but...

Sat, 19 Feb 2011 21:50:00 -0500

I’m leaving you.

It’s not you, it’s… well, actually, it IS you.

When we first met, I fell so hard for your beautiful themes and elegantly simple user interface. You were so hip, so pretty, so easy.You even had an API.

We had a great summer and fall together.

But then, things started to turn. First, I tried to put some basic HTML tables in post. That didn’t go so well. I had to switch to all HTML input. I got tired of typing in <br><br> or <p> in my regular posts just so I could format data into tables.

Then, I tried to embed a visualization from Tableau Public. No go. The best you could do was a linked image. And remember all the back-and-forth about just trying to get comments enabled?

Tonight, the final straw. I tried to embed a PDF from Scribd. You couldn’t do that, either. I searched everywhere for help, but nothing.

You are so unresponsive when I have a problem.

So, Tumblr, I”m sorry. We need a break. And yes, there is someone else now. You drove me to WordPress.

Call me sometime there at afewtastefulsnaps.wordpress.com.

I know you’ll do okay without me.

(P.S. I taking all my old posts with me, even the Chihuahuas. I’ll send someone by to pick them up when you’re not home.)

Ron and Daniel, Michel and Barbara

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 12:55:00 -0500

I’ve been working on a project using Elections Canada data the past few days and staring at a lot of lines of political contributions.

I noticed there seemed to be a lot of “Ians” among Conservative Party donors, so I decided to run an analysis on the first names of contributors to each party.

I filtered out the 20 most common names on the list (mostly English Biblical mens names like John and David) to produce a list of names that would be more unique to each party.

Not surprisingly, the Conservative donor names tend to be largely WASPy, male and many from a certain era.

There are more Francophone names among the Liberals and, of course, the Bloc contributors, while female names occur more often on the list of New Democrats.

Note: These are based on my database of political contributions to parties, candidates and riding associations from 2003 to now.

Scambaiting explained

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 11:07:00 -0500

Just to follow my previous post on the chihuahuas…

I am but a complete novice in the art of scam baiting compared to the folks at 419eater.com.

Scam baiting is the art and science of engaging Internet scammers in lengthy email exchanges. The website title is drawn from the section of Nigerian criminal code used to prosecute these electronic frauds.

The trophy the scam baiters often seek is a photo of their mark holding up a sign they have been convinced will help seal the deal they peddle.

The photos typically have puerile but hilarious puns written on them. For a full archive, check out the Trophy Room on 419eater.

(Not entirely safe for at-work viewer, depending on how Tightly Klenching Micheeks your boss is.)

Most of the scammers pictured are African, of course, and their poverty and pathos is evident in the photographs. But 419eater makes it clear that it does not tolerate racism or target Africans in particular. These people are criminals — and potentially dangerous once — who abuse the trust of others, the site notes.

In particular, check out the work of Shiver Mitimbers, the Michael Jordan of scam baiting.

"Thanks, waiting": The Cameroonian Chihuahua scam

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 10:00:03 -0500

A couple of years ago, I wrote a story for my paper about a teenager who was ripped off in an African Internet puppy selling scam. The girl wanted to buy a Paris Hilton -style “teacup” dog and her dad sent money to someone they never met. The dog never arrived.

After the story, I decided to contact the vendor for a little scam baiting. Here’s how it went:

Glen McGregor <sushiboy21@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi,

I saw your ad online for Maltese puppies. Can you tell me how old
they are and what gender?

Where are you located in Vancouver?

Thanks,

Glen

On Mon, Jan 12, 2009 at 2:13 PM, <teacup.mcypups@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi,
Yes,Where precisely are you located ?
what sex are you after of ?

Thanks

On 1/12/09, Glen McGregor <sushiboy21@gmail.com> wrote:

I am in Ottawa, Canada. Looking for a female Chihuahua.

On 1/12/09, teacup. mcypups <teacup.mcypups@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi,
i’m located st john’s City Nfld
Had been shipping over to Ottawa,ON for Airport
pick up,unless you desire House Delivery.

Cost of Chihuahua is $500
Cost of shipping is $100

This includes the Airfare,
regs/paper works. Let me if you can afford,
So i could send pics, details alongside
steps regarding the Purchase.

PS Pups are Super Cute Perfect Teacup size babies
Thanks

On Tue, Jan 13, 2009 at 4:15 AM, Glen McGregor <sushiboy21@gmail.com> wrote:

Air delivery is fine as long as they are still fresh. My chef needs to know how much they weigh.

from teacup. mcypups <teacup.mcypups@gmail.com>
to sushiboy21@gmail.com
date Tue, Jan 13, 2009 at 1:40 PM
[Joy.jpg,Melvan.JPG,Molly.JPG]

Hi,

Sorry for the late reply, i went out yesterday and my arrival was late.

below are the pcs of the females called Joy,Melvan & Molly ,

which of them will you like to buy ? so i can send details on her.

Joy weighs 21Oz, Melvan 20Oz and Molly 18Oz.

Bother not , Shipment is via Air Canada etc

They have Animal specialists employed and take the

very best care of Puppies while on board.

Thnaks,waiting!!

from Glen McGregor <sushiboy21@gmail.com>
reply-to sushiboy21@gmail.com
to “teacup. mcypups” <teacup.mcypups@gmail.com>
date Tue, Jan 13, 2009 at 4:29 PM
subject Re: Pictures

No problem with late reply. Thanks for the photos. They look very tasty.

I’m considering buying all three, as Korean New Year is fast
approaching. Would there be a discount? Also, Molly looks a bit
skinny. Is she sick? Could she be fattened up a bit?

Glen

from teacup. mcypups <teacup.mcypups@gmail.com>
to sushiboy21@gmail.com
date Wed, Jan 14, 2009 at 7:05 PM
subject Re: Pictures
mailed-by gmail.com

Hi,
From there weights you have to known that Molly was the runts
of the litter and obviously has to be that small, she is not sick.
i will let you a 5% discount on the total sum. therefore the total amount
payable should be $1710. but rounding the figures.
i will prefer you pay $1700 as the total sum for all three pups.
My next mail will contain the summary of the shipping guides,
but before i proceed,
Can you tell me the level of your House Activities?
Have you had a puppy before ? if yes, what breed?

from Glen McGregor <sushiboy21@gmail.com>
reply-to sushiboy21@gmail.com
to “teacup. mcypups” <teacup.mcypups@gmail.com>
date Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 8:47 AM
subject Re: Pictures
mailed-by gmail.com

Hello,

I hope you are enjoying the warm weather in Newfoundland. Make sure
you wear plenty of sun block this time of year!!!

I was hoping for a slightly larger discount, given that they could be
shipped together. How about $1,500 for all three?

I have important guests coming for the New Years dinner and want to
serve other dishes, besides the chihuahua. You would not believe the
cost of good truffles!!! Speaking of, can you suggest a wine
pairing for the puppies?

To answer your question, yes, I have had puppy before while travelling
in Vietnam. Well, I should say dog. They say it’s just like chicken
but I found it kind of gamey. I’m hoping the teacups are more tender.

How do you want to arrange payment? I have a colleague in St. John’s
who can drop off a cheque. He’d also like to get a look at the dogs.
Where are you located?

teacup. mcypups <teacup.mcypups@gmail.com>
to sushiboy21@gmail.com
date Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 11:36 AM
subject Re: Pictures
mailed-by gmail.com

I will do just that, they will be comfortable on plane.
i can let go the three at the cost of $1600.00
in this case i will get them all in same Large Travel Crate.
If you are okay let me know so i can send you the summary
of the shipping guides. Also am located in Pouch Cove some
30mins from st John’s Airport where they shall be shipped out?

Also Can you tell me the level of your House acaitivties?
You never mentioned if you had a puppy before ?

Thanks,waiting!!

from Glen McGregor <sushiboy21@gmail.com>
reply-to sushiboy21@gmail.com
to “teacup. mcypups” <teacup.mcypups@gmail.com>
date Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 12:15 PM
subject Re: Pictures
mailed-by gmail.com

$1,600 sounds fair enough.

You’re in Pouch Cove? That’s fantastic! My colleague lives not too far
from there. He can drop off the payment with you before they are
shipped. It will be a personal cheque from the Heroic People’s
Agriculture Bank of Leningrad (I will endorse) made out to cash.

I’m not sure what you meant by house activities? Our home is very
safe. We like to entertain, with exotic food served often, as I
mentioned. Other than that, we listen to a lot of Norwegian death
metal and host regular seances and swingers parties. Rest assured
that, as devout Raelians, we have a strict no-hard-drugs policy on the
premises (people can shoot up outside on the back deck, weather
permitting, however).

As I said in my last note, I have had dog before but I’m not sure if
it was a puppy. It was served over noodles with some sort of
vegetable that I didn’t recognize. Maybe bok choy. I have also had
snake and once, on a dare, I ate at an Arby’s restaurant in
Ogdensburg.

Please send shipping details. We are all excited about the puppies.

from teacup. mcypups <teacup.mcypups@gmail.com>
to sushiboy21@gmail.com
date Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 5:01 PM
subject Re: Pictures
mailed-by gmail.com

Hi,
when i talk of House activities.
just how you home looks like, tight up, spaced out etc
how many people are resident in,
when you are not around is anybody home.

Thanks

from Glen McGregor <sushiboy21@gmail.com>
reply-to sushiboy21@gmail.com
to “teacup. mcypups” <teacup.mcypups@gmail.com>
date Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 9:47 PM
subject Re: Pictures
mailed-by gmail.com

Oh, I see. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

Normally, there are six of us at home, and there will be seven when my
wife is released from prison (parole hearing next month — fingers
crossed). My father has lived at home with us since the “accident”
but we keep him mostly in the crawl space, so not a problem. He is
always home during the day, for obvious reasons, but we let him go out
at night when there is less than a half moon or overcast skies.

In terms of space, we have about sixteen acres including the archery
range. Of greatest interest in this situation is the outdoor gas
barbecue and rotisserie spit. Oh, and the slaughterhouse, both of
which will be useful when the pups arrive.

So, as I said, it’s a very safe environment.

from teacup. mcypups <teacup.mcypups@gmail.com>
to sushiboy21@gmail.com
date Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 5:04 PM
subject Re: Pictures
mailed-by gmail.com

That sounds well, shipping is via Air Canada

They have Animal specialists employed and take the
very best care of Puppies while on board.

Regarding the shipping Proper, you need to send the followings.
1. Your Contact address,names including Numbers?
2 Actual date you want them shipped out?
3. The airport that you can easily access for the pick up?
4. Do you desire Airport pick up or House Delivery ?

P S, This is required at the airport and Vets service,
so i can do regs/paper works Vets Travel certs and book the flight.
It enable the Airline to give you a call when they’re about shipped ,
According to roles binding Pets Exportation Puppies are
updated on Vaccinations,Shots & Dewormings 72hours
prior to shipment. Once your desire date for shipment is known,
i’ll get her updated prior, drive down the airport,
checked on available flights. You will chose your preferred flight.
i’ll finalized Flight booking,obtain the Flight Airway bills and send to you.

These includes the
Actual time of Flight take off & Arrival,
Flight Reference & Tracking numbers.
Frequency, Equipment & Crate numbers.
Airport Terminal for the pick up.
You will uphold this alongside your Photo ID card
or Driver’s Licensed for the pick up at the airport.

Each comes along with the Followings.
CKC regs paper works,
Current Vacc Calendar,
Vets Checked records,
Shots records,
Dewormed records,
Micro-chipped
Contract Guarantee,
Health Warranty for 2year.
Nutrition and Information care booklet
showing her daily Routine.
Toys & Blankets,
Food & Water,
New Travel Crate
Puppy pee-pads

Thanks, Waiting

from Glen McGregor <sushiboy21@gmail.com>
reply-to sushiboy21@gmail.com
to “teacup. mcypups” <teacup.mcypups@gmail.com>
date Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 10:02 PM
subject Re: Pictures
mailed-by gmail.com

This sounds all in order but I have a few concerns

1. For tax reasons, the dogs will have to be delivered care of my
accountant, whose name and address I will furnish to you in due
course.
2. Not Bother with vets. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency checks
out all meat products traveling by air over provincial boundaries.
3. As for shipping dates, again, I will check with my chef. I know he
plans to marinade for at least 8 hours, so we have to allow for that.
I am thinking early next week. How long is the flight usually?
4. I am considering having the dogs shipped in executive class, so
they do not arrive agitated and ruin their natural flavour. I
understand this will be an added expense to me but I think it might be
worth it. Your view?
5. HAVE THE MICROCHIPS BEEN INSERTED YET?!!!! I am very concerned
about this. They could melt while the dogs are being prepared.
Imagine if one of my guests found a chip on his plate!
6. Is there an alternative to Air Canada? Does WestJet fly to St.
John’s? I like it when they tell jokes and I’m sure the dogs would
find them amusing, even in a gallows humour kind of way!

When will you send me an invoice? I will need a purchase order number
and GST number.

from teacup. mcypups <teacup.mcypups@gmail.com>
to sushiboy21@gmail.com
date Fri, Jan 16, 2009 at 11:25 AM
subject Re: Pictures
mailed-by gmail.com

Hi,
All sounds well, bother not your guest wouldn’t find chips on his/her plate,
they were microchipped last weekend.. As earlier said the pups will be fine,
there is no need for the shipment on Executive or VIP Class
unless you want to just spend extra money. Also i will be waiting on
those information regarding your accountant names and you desired
date for shipment. inorder for me to do the paper works and registration.
Westjet Flight to St John’s. The flight duration from here is approx 1H57Mins for direct flights.
i will let you an invoice once you had let me your desired date for shipment.

Thanks,waiting!!

from Glen McGregor <sushiboy21@gmail.com>
reply-to sushiboy21@gmail.com
to “teacup. mcypups” <teacup.mcypups@gmail.com>
date Fri, Jan 16, 2009 at 12:19 PM
subject Re: Pictures
mailed-by gmail.com

Apologies for the delay. With the warm weather, we were planning to
reopen the backyard swimming pool today but we’ve had problems with
iguanas getting into the filtration system. Bother not, the
exterminator is on his way.

In your previous note, you mentioned the dogs’ daily routine. Can you
tell me a bit about what they are doing while they are with you? Also
PLEASE SEND MORE PICTURES. Especially of Molly. I am still concerned
about her weight.

I just realized I never asked if the puppies are free-range. We prefer
to eat only organic, so anything you can tell me about their diet
would be helpful. Grain-fed would be fantastic!

I will call the accountant today and check on his availability for
airport pick-up. What sort of vehicle do you suggest? I’m not sure
how big the dogs are, so I suspect we may need a cube van or something
larger.

(THIS EMAIL IS MET WITH A LONG RADIO SILENCE FROM POUCH COVE. HAVE I OVERPLAYED MY HAND?)

…

(APPARENTLY NOT)

from teacup. mcypups <teacup.mcypups@gmail.com>
to sushiboy21@gmail.com
date Sun, Jan 18, 2009 at 11:38 AM
subject Re: Pictures
mailed-by gmail.com

Hi,
All sounds well, how ar you doing ? guess fine,
i was wondering if you had discussed with the accountant.
as said molly is the smallest and or runts of the litter,
she obvious has be the smallest as the up.
As these are always the case in new litter.

Thanks,waiting!!!

from Glen McGregor <sushiboy21@gmail.com>
reply-to sushiboy21@gmail.com
to “teacup. mcypups” <teacup.mcypups@gmail.com>
date Sun, Jan 18, 2009 at 5:26 PM
subject Re: Pictures
mailed-by gmail.com

Hello,

Yes, I spoke to my accountant. He is strongly advising against
conducting such a large dollar transaction with someone I know only
over the Internets and suggests I look elsewhere for a source of dog
meat.

With the New Years dinner so close, I am torn by this but I must rely
on his professional opinion. That’s why I have him on retainer. Were
it not for him, I’d be making little ones out of big ones for
five-to-seven years in a federal correctional facility.

Needless to say, this has thrown our menu planning into disarray. The
chef is frantically trying to find an alternative for our guests from
the consulate. Needless to say, we will need a fuck of a lot of
kimchi to fill the void left by the chihuahuas. He’s pickling cabbage
in my jacuzzi as we speak.

My apologies for the inconvienence but, as my accountant points out, I
don’t even know who you are.

How is the weather today?

"All the single ladies (and gents)"

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 12:36:00 -0500

As long as I have lived in Ottawa, I have had cab drivers tell me there are three single women for every single man living here.

The theory was that women are massively overrepresented in the public service. It is true there are more women than men working in the federal government, but nowhere near three times as many.

As for their marital status, can’t really say but if you’re looking for love on Valentine’s Day, best to go west, young wo/man.

Skiing spots Banff and Whistler boast the highest Indigenous populations of singletons.

There’s always Iqaluit, too, but, well, y’know…. it’s Iqaluit.

Vancouver is the big surprise entry here in 2006 census data from Statistics Canada (percentage of population over 15 years of age who have never married).

Canada	27.6 %
Banff (Alta.)	45.3
Whistler (B.C.)	44.7
Iqaluit (Nvt.)	40.1
Vancouver (B.C.)	36.2
Montréal (Que.)	35.8
Victoria (B.C.)	34.6
Greater Vancouver A (B.C.)	34.6
Lloydminster (Part) (Sask.)	33.9
St. John’s (N.L.)	33.8
Joliette (Que.)	33.4
Shippagan (N.B.)	33.2
Yellowknife (N.W.T.)	33.2
Saskatoon (Sask.)	32.8
Toronto (Ont.)	32.5
Charlottetown (P.E.I.)	32.5
Thompson (Man.)	32.2
Edmonton (Alta.)	32.1
Whitehorse (Y.T.)	31.8
Nicolet (Que.)	31.7
Québec (Que.)	31.4
Regina (Sask.)	31.3
Inverness, Subd. B (N.S.)	31.2
Slave Lake (Alta.)	31
Prince Albert (Sask.)	31
Burnaby (B.C.)	30.9
Nelson (B.C.)	30.8
Grande Prairie (Alta.)	30.7
Red Deer (Alta.)	30.6
Sherbrooke (Que.)	30.6
Prince Rupert (B.C.)	30.6
The Pas (Man.)	30.5
Longueuil (Que.)	30.5
Winnipeg (Man.)	30.5
Westmount (Que.)	30.4
Baie-Saint-Paul (Que.)	30.3
North Vancouver (B.C.)	30.3
Alnwick (N.B.)	30.2
Saint John (N.B.)	30.2
Fredericton (N.B.)	30.1
Campbellton (N.B.)	30.1
Waterloo (Ont.)	30
Big Lakes (Alta.)	30
Wood Buffalo (Alta.)	30
Ottawa (Ont.)	29.9
Calgary (Alta.)	29.9
Fort St. John (B.C.)	29.9
Moncton (N.B.)	29.8
Rimouski (Que.)	29.6
Windsor (Ont.)	29.6
North Battleford (Sask.)	29.6

Hewer of wood, namer of streets after trees

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 10:47:00 -0500

I was playing around with Where the Streets Have Your Name and became curious about the frequency of street names in Canada.

Using some open data sources, I was able to pull together a list of the most-common street names in Canada (long and tedious bit about the methodology appears below the table).

Oddly, “Second” is the most frequent street name in towns, villages and cities across the country. This seems counterintuitive until you realize that “First Street” is usually the main drag in a town and prone to renaming, often for a local hero or something bland imposed by provincial authorities.

Thus, what should be called First Street in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, is now Mitchell Street. Instead of First Street in Denzil, Saskatchewan, there is Highway 676.

The remaining numbered streets follow Benford’s Law, so there are fewer Fifths than Fourths and Ninths than Eighths.

The top of the list also includes the blancmange Main and Park, of course, but a unique Canadian quirk is Railway so high on the list. This is due to the number of towns that sprung up along the Canadian Pacific Railway line, particularly on the Prairies.

Victoria is also a nice reference to our former Queen, in keeping with the era in which many of Canada’s smaller towns acquired proper street names.

And then there are the trees: Maple (and des Erables), Pine (des Pins), Birch, Spruce, Cedar, Willow, Poplar. Monty Python fans will be disappointed that “The Larch” does not make the top 200. There’s only 87 Larch streets.

Rank	Street	Number
1	Second	1891
2	First	1833
3	Third	1540
4	Fourth	1237
5	Main	972
6	Fifth	875
7	Sixth	858
8	Park	781
9	Seventh	738
10	Railway	714
11	Maple	710
12	Pine	535
13	Church	523
14	Birch	516
15	Victoria	513
16	Eighth	506
17	Spruce	499
18	King	498
19	Cedar	489
20	Ninth	465
21	Willow	444
22	Tenth	443
23	Poplar	437
24	River	422
25	Sunset	420
26	Elm	408
27	Centre	403
28	Queen	382
29	Mill	373
30	Oak	366
31	Lakeview	337
32	George	321
33	James	319
34	de l’Eglise	316
35	Smith	311
36	Albert	307
37	des Erables	299
38	William	293
39	Martin	285
40	North	284
41	Campbell	278
42	Elizabeth	276
43	John	276
44	Riverside	276
45	Wilson	272
46	Aspen	271
47	Principale	263
48	Charles	254
49	Lake	253
50	des Pins	251
51	Scott	251
52	Wellington	251
53	Nelson	249
54	du Parc	248
55	Taylor	247
56	Ross	246
57	Beach	245
58	Forest	245
59	Hillcrest	243
60	Bayview	241
61	50th	240
62	Evergreen	240
63	49th	238
64	Saint-Joseph	238
65	Thompson	238
66	Water	238
67	Hillside	237
68	Bellevue	235
69	West	235
70	Fraser	233
71	Cameron	232
72	48th	231
73	Douglas	231
74	51st	226
75	des Cedres	226
76	52nd	224
77	Riverview	222
78	Hill	220
79	Centennial	219
80	Eleventh	217
81	16th	216
82	Thomas	214
83	des Bouleaux	212
84	Highland	212
85	Ash	208
86	Station	208
87	Roy	205
88	Richard	204
89	Robert	202
90	53rd	199
91	MacDonald	199
92	Hamilton	195
93	Murray	195
94	Robinson	195
95	Johnson	193
96	Alexander	192
97	du Moulin	192
98	Lakeshore	191
99	Saint-Pierre	190
100	Anderson	189
101	Arthur	188
102	Elgin	188
103	Gordon	187
104	Heritage	187
105	47th	186
106	Mary	186
107	Churchill	184
108	East	184
109	South	184
110	Miller	183
111	Edward	182
112	Princess	182
113	Woodland	182
114	Champlain	181
115	Stewart	181
116	York	181
117	Balsam	180
118	Industrial	179
119	Meadow	179
120	5th	178
121	Young	178
122	Brown	177
123	Juniper	177
124	Laurier	177
125	Front	176
126	Twelfth	175
127	Stanley	174
128	School	173
129	du Lac	172
130	Kennedy	172
131	55th	171
132	Rose	171
133	de la Montagne	170
134	Hemlock	170
135	Saint-Louis	170
136	Graham	169
137	de la Rivi?re	167
138	Green	166
139	Henry	166
140	Bay	165
141	Walker	165
142	Airport	164
143	Eagle	164
144	Ridge	162
145	Mountain	160
146	Alder	158
147	Baker	157
148	Bell	157
149	Chestnut	157
150	Orchard	157
151	David	155
152	Russell	155
153	Sunrise	153
154	Gagnon	152
155	Union	152
156	Davis	151
157	Parkview	151
158	Clark	150
159	Grant	150
160	Kelly	150
161	45	149
162	46	149
163	Sherwood	149
164	Dufferin	148
165	Valley	148
166	Garden	147
167	54	146
168	McDonald	146
169	Greenwood	145
170	13	144
171	15	144
172	Cherry	144
173	Lorne	143
174	Mitchell	143
175	Moore	143
176	Ontario	143
177	Saint-Jean	143
178	Wallace	143
179	Bernard	142
180	Cartier	142
181	Fairview	142
182	Tamarack	142
183	Lakeside	141
184	Beaver	140
185	du Ruisseau	140
186	Morin	140
187	Bridge	139
188	Raymond	139
189	Prince	138
190	Broadway	137
191	Walnut	136
192	High	135
193	Jackson	135
194	Pleasant	135
195	Cemetery	134
196	des Saules	134
197	Jones	134
198	Royal	134
199	20	132
200	Cardinal	132

Methodology: I thought pulling together this list would be a relatively simple task, but it was surprisingly complex. I couldn’t find any open-data sources with a full list of street names across the entire country. The best I could do was an enormous map file (an .shp) called the National Roads Network.
I imported this 250 MB file into ArcMap, a GIS program and found that while it includes what appears to be every street in the country, it doesn’t identify the community in which it is located. Worse, many streets list in the file are broken down into multiple segements, so Bank Street in Ottawa is listed multiple times and difficult to distinguish from Bank Place in Kamloops.

In order to sort this list, I needed to assign each street to its nearest town, village or city. Here, ArcMap was indispensable. I used a “spatial join” to calculate the distance of several million street segments to the nearest community. Even on a fast computer, this took a while.

Once each street segment was assigned its closest community, I exported the records to MySQL and used a GROUP BY to cluster the streets by community, then count the number of unique records you see listed above.

The approach in not perfect. Ideally, I would have had shapefiles with polygons for the boundaries of every community in the country. That’s not available for free, yet.

So, the number counts are probably not perfect, but close enough for fun. * Note: For the sake of simplicity, French and English versions of numbered streets were counted together, so that Second, 2nd, and 2e are grouped.

Tracking Harper government bills

Fri, 11 Feb 2011 12:00:00 -0500

This one speaks for itself. The majority of the bills introduced by the government that haven’t made it into law died when Prime Minister Stephen Harper prorogued parliament.

The data show that 42 per cent of Tory bills have made it into law, so far.

Really, this was just a chance to play around a bit more with Tableau Public, which I’m loving, even though they don’t offer a Mac client (yet).

How they voted on transgender equality bill

Thu, 10 Feb 2011 10:25:00 -0500

NDP MP Bill Siksay’s private member bill amending the Criminal Code to protect transsexuals and transgender people passed in the House of Commons Wednesday.

Much of the attention on the vote was focused on a block of socially-less-conservative Conservatives who supported the bill, House Leader John Baird among them.

But also interesting were the social-conservative Liberals who voted against the bill. All of them represent suburban Toronto ridings with sizable ethnic communities, who are not believed to be as liberal in their attitudes towards such issues.

(Note: four Bloc Quebecois MPs paired with four Conservative MPs and didn’t vote. It cannot be inferred how they would have voted.)

Government's own data shows crime, taxes not priorities for most Canadians

Wed, 09 Feb 2011 14:53:41 -0500

Last spring, the Department of Finance hired Harris/Decima research to poll Canadians on the current state of the economy and their concerns.

Not surprisingly, when Canadians were asked which issue the government should focus on, “the Economy” rated at number one on the list — but not for everyone. Women, the data show, put health care ahead of the economy.

And what of crime? The Harper government is spending a yet-unquantified number of billions of dollars on expanding prisons and reforming sentencing.

But if crime is a priority among Canadians, they aren’t telling pollsters. Only 2 per cent identified crime as the top issue, the same level as those who thought taxes are the number-one issue.

The poll combined telephone and online interviews of 2,101 respondents. The department paid $35,000 for the survey.

Chinese head tax redress a bargain for feds

Wed, 09 Feb 2011 13:14:00 -0500

The Harper government scored major points in the Chinese community when it announced redress payments of $20,000 for families affected by Chinese head tax.

One major pay-off for the Tories was a win in the Vancouver area of Richmond, with a large Chinese population.

The head tax was charged on new Chinese immigrants between 1885 and 1923 in Canada and between 1910 and 1949 in Newfoundland, before it joined the confederation.

An estimated 82,000 head tax certificates were issued. But according to data tabled in the House of Commons recently, survivors of barely 1 per cent of those who paid made claims for redress. Total cost to the feds was just over $15 million.

Applications	856
Eligible	785
Ineligible	71
Submitted after Mar. 31, 2008	17
Total pay-outs	$15,700,000

Libs pick up on their own order paper question

Fri, 04 Feb 2011 20:28:00 -0500

Hey, Liberal Research Office, help yourselves to anything else you’d like on this blog.

Globe and Mail, Feb. 4:

“Following Haiti’s earthquake last year, rather than delivering aid as quickly as possible, the Conservative government wasted $27,000 on single-use backdrops, conveniently coloured Tory blue, when they were coordinating a response to the earthquake,” Liberal MP John McCallum told a news conference.

“To put that in context, it’s about 55 times the income of the average Haitian.”

This blog, Feb. 2:

According to recently released documents, the extravagant backdrops were used only once, when Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon hosted the Ministerial Preparatory Conference in Montreal on January 25, 2010.

The department paid $26,534 for the backdrop – about 55 times the average gross national product for a Haitian person.

The banners were rendered in Conservative Party colours – medium blue, with red highlights – and bore the slogan, “Strength in union.”

No OC Transpo API for you!

Fri, 04 Feb 2011 15:32:35 -0500

Ottawa software developers were excited when the city started allowing them to tap into OC Transpo’s server that tracks real-time bus location data.

Using the advanced programming interface — API— to tap into the GPS data, coders were busy creating new mobile and web-based applications that would tell users whether their bus was on-time. Several of these were entered in the City of Ottawa’s app4ottawa contest.

A few weeks back, however, the city suddenly shut down access to the data. Word at the time was that this was a temporary development, just a pause to work out some of the kinks.

Not so, according to one city hall source, who tells me the city jumped the gun in opening up the API in the first place. OC Transpo has been developing their own application and is revamping the entire system used to track buses. There was a miscommunication between the city tech guys and the bus people, I’m told. The company wasn’t expecting the data to go online.

There were also concerns about liability, because OC Transpo had no control over how the apps used their data. If somebody on the way to the Civic Hospital for brain surgery missed their bus because of an app error, who to blame and who gets sued?

Further, the company apparently has hopes for commercial advantages from the app they are building — want an ad with that bus schedule? Whether this data will ever be open is uncertain.

So, bad news for Ottawa’s burgeoning Open Data community.

The only bus data can get in the near term is archival, much like the 92 million GPS records I used for this story on OC Transpo reliability figures.

Maple Leafs syndrome afflicts Senators?

Fri, 04 Feb 2011 14:07:00 -0500

The Ottawa Senators are now 8 games into a losing streak, fans are moaning and calls to fire either the general manager or coach go unheeded by the owner.

So, one might assume, lousy hockey and annoyed fans should result in falling attendance, right?

Nope. Just as the Toronto Maple Leafs sell out every game despite chronic on-ice, futility, Senators supporters are expressing their discontent by… buying tickets.

In social science terms, there is a negative correlation between the team’s winning percentage and the attendance at home games.

My crunch of the data shows it’s a pretty strong correlation, too — about .72, where 0 means no correlation at all, and 1 is a perfect correlation. The worse the team does, the more fans come out.

Graphic, please…

UPDATE: I’ve heard a lot of suggestions on why this might be the case. One of our sports guys at the Citizen dismissed this as old news, saying the team always knows that sales are better in the second half of the season.

I ran this theory through the numbers for this season and the previous five and it holds up, although not to the extent that would explain the current trend. On average, attendance is strongest in March, at an average of 19,798 and weakest in October, at 19,178. As the above chart shows, the trough to peak difference in the current season rolling attendance average is about 1,677 — nearly three times the difference in the change seen over past season.

Also, some Twitter posts suggested this was a criticism — that I disapprove of fans turning out to support a bad team. I’m neutral on that point but it’s worth noting Ottawa sports fans have long been accused fair-weatherism. These data suggest just the opposite.

Another theory advanced, based on lots of anecdotal info, is that the corporations that buy season tickets to entertain clients start giving them away to employees when the team loses. These “real fans” are more likely to show up at the game, boosting attendance (but not sales) even if the team struggles.

Bandwidth lobbying wars

Fri, 04 Feb 2011 10:47:00 -0500

Look at just about any company with a dog in the fight over telecom issues, chances are you find high-paid lobbyists working in their corner.

The imbroglio over the CRTC decision on bandwidth caps for Internet providers is no different.

Netflix, which gobbles up bandwidth with its online movie distribution, has the most to gain from Industry Minister Tony Clement’s intervention in the file. No surprise, they “Lobby Up’ed” last month, bringing on Subrata Bhattacharjee from Heenan Blaikee’s Toronto office.

Communications reports filed on Thursday showed Bhattacharjee scored some ear-time with CRTC officials on the Netflix file, Chairman Konrad von Finckenstein among them.

Von Finckenstein told the industry committee this week that he was planning to review the bandwidth decision even before Clement went ~~public~~ Twitter with his intention to overturn it.

Bhattacharjee also filed comms reports for meetings on Netflix’s behalf with two Industry Canada ADMs and a DG.

So, nicely done, Subrata.

Meanwhile, on the other side, there’s been a bit of lobbying action from the cable cos. Some of the heaviest hitters in the business last week mentioned Netflix in registration declarations on behalf of Shaw Communications.

Geoff Norquay and Mike Robinson of the Earnscliffe Strategy Group are both on-board for Shaw and both include in their subject matter: “Over the top providers - ensure that services like Netflix, Hulu and Apple TV operate under the same regulatory system as broadcast distributors.”

This one ain’t over yet.

Vote like an Egyptian

Thu, 03 Feb 2011 14:57:00 -0500

The country watches unfolding events in Cairo but no one probably is as keenly interested as Egyptians living here.

A quick data crunch shoes that people of Egyptian origin tend to be overwhelming concentrated in Liberal ridings. Even in Bloc-dominated Quebec, Egyptians tend to live primarily in allophone ridings that vote Liberal.

From Statistics Canada’s long-form 2006 census questions on ethic origin (20 per cent sample), these are the electoral districts with highest number of those who identified as Egyptian:

Mississauga - Streetsville (Liberal) 2255

Saint-Laurent - Cartierville (Liberal) 2125

Pierrefonds - Dollard (Liberal) 2065

Mississauga - Erindale (Conservative) 2005

Lac-Saint-Louis (Liberal) 1550

Brossard - La Prairie (Liberal) 1190

Laval - Les Îles (Liberal) 1155

Mississauga - Brampton South (Liberal) 980

Westmount - Ville-Marie (Liberal) 960

Scarborough - Agincourt (Liberal) 920

Richmond Hill (Conservative) 910

Mississauga East - Cooksville (Liberal) 890

Oak Ridges - Markham (Conservative) 865

Don Valley East (Liberal) 840

Halton (Conservative) 760

Ottawa West - Nepean (Conservative) 700

Mont-Royal / Mount Royal (Liberal) 690

Willowdale (Liberal) 690

Markham - Unionville (Liberal) 645

Scarborough - Rouge River (Liberal) 625

Strategic voting: What has it done for you lately?

Thu, 03 Feb 2011 08:36:31 -0500

Once again, opposition supporters are discussing strategic voting in the next election to keep Stephen Harper’s Conservatives out of government. The “Catch 22” theory advanced this time in the Georgia Strait follows the same logic that failed to defeat the Tories in 2008 and, in fact, left them with a strengthened minority government.

While the principle is sound, in reality, it doesn’t work.

The “Anyone But Conservatives” (ABC) campaign got oodles of ink last time, but voters didn’t buy in, as per this analysis I did on election night in 2008 (using the Mother of All Excel Spreasheets Paired With Live Data that I Couldn’t Get Working Until 9:30 p.m. And Nearly Died of Stress As the Votes Poured In).

The reason I think it doesn’t work is simply that Canadians take their votes seriously. They prefer to vote for someone they believe in, but who they know will lose, rather than hold their nose and vote for the winner.

Sort of admirable, that.

Calls to vote anyone-but-Tory fail dismally; Green vote enough to give Conservatives 16 seats, study shows

The Ottawa Citizen
Wed Oct 15 2008
Page: A5
Section: News
Byline: Glen McGregor
Source: The Ottawa Citizen

Despite calls to vote strategically against Conservatives, Canadian electors yesterday failed to cluster their support behind the candidates best positioned to defeat Tories, a Citizen analysis of voting results shows.

Fewer voters coalesced around the single strongest NDP, Bloc, Liberal or independent candidate in a riding than they did in the 2006 vote, helping pave the way to the Conservative victory, election returns show.

The splitting of votes among parties to the ideological left of the Tories was a factor in dozens of ridings, as the Liberals dropped 14 of the most closely contested seats they won in 2006.

The Green party again cleaved votes away from the NDP and Liberals and were on pace to take away enough votes to help elect Conservatives in 19 ridings.

Throughout this campaign, environmentalists called on voters to choose the candidate in their ridings with the best chance of beating the Conservative candidate. To protest the Harper government’s treatment of Atlantic Canada, Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams exhorted Canadians to vote ABC — “Anyone But Conservatives.” On Facebook and other Internet sites, groups sprang up that allowed users to agree to swap their votes with people in other ridings in effort to block the Tories.

To measure the effectiveness of this strategic voting campaign, the Citizen calculated the concentration of the non-Conservative vote. If voters are split in a riding, the NDP, Liberals, Bloc and Green will share smaller chunks of votes not cast for Tories. But if the “ABC” vote is concentrated behind a single candidate, he or she would stand a better chance of winning.

In 2006, these candidates averaged 61 per cent of the non-Tory votes cast in their ridings. But that figure dropped to 58 per cent last night, suggesting voters never got behind the idea of pooling their votes strategically. Rather than stick to together, anti-Conservative voters scattered.

Even in ridings expected to be close, voters showed little signs of gathering behind one candidate.

In the last election, there were 48 ridings where the margin of victory was less than five per cent of valid votes. Environmental groups targeted these key ridings as ripe for strategic voting. In those ridings in 2006, the concentration of non-Tory votes ran at 57 per cent. Last night, that number fell to 56 per cent.

The result: the Tories were on course to pick up 27 of these seats, better than the 16 of the closely-contested ridings they won last time. The Liberals had won 23 of these seats last time, but staggered away with only 10.

Among these key ridings was that of Conservative Health Minister Tony Clement, who won his Parry Sound - Muskoka seat in 2006 by the slimmest of margins, only 48 votes. Last night, however, he was re-elected easily as the opposition votes were scattered between the NDP, Green and Liberal candidates.

Just as U.S. Democrats blamed Ralph Nader siphoning enough votes away from Al Gore to cost him Florida, the loss of “progressive” votes to the Green party was also a factor last night.

In 19 ridings last night, Tories were on their way to victory with margins lower than the number of votes cast for Green candidates. If all these Green voters had strategically voted for their NDP, Bloc or Liberal candidate, the Tories would have lost these ridings.

The loss of left-of-centre votes to the Greens will doubtless have some blaming the party for helping elect Conservatives.

But if the Greens had elected to not run candidates, it is unclear where their voters would have gone.

An EKOS Research poll conducted over three days ending Oct. 13 found that Green voters were by no means unanimous in their second choice of parties.

The NDP and Liberals were tied for second choice of 28 per cent of those intending to vote Green followed by the Bloc at eight per cent nationally — or about 41 per cent in Quebec — and the Conservatives at a surprisingly high 17 per cent.

By redistributing Green votes to the other parties in those proportions, a different picture emerges. This “Green shift” last night was projected to swing only six ridings away from the Tories to other parties.

Backdrops for Haiti! Government paid out thousands for banners to decorate ministerial conference

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 11:01:00 -0500

As Canadians dug into their pockets for donations to Haiti last year, the Department of Foreign Affairs spent nearly $27,000 on backdrops used at a ministerial conference to coordinate response to the earthquake.

According to recently released documents, the extravagant backdrops were used only once, when Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon hosted the Ministerial Preparatory Conference in Montreal on January 25, 2010.

The department paid $26,534 for the backdrop – about 55 times the average gross national product for a Haitian person.

The banners were rendered in Conservative Party colours – medium blue, with red highlights – and bore the slogan, “Strength in union.”

Details of the banner purchase were tabled by the government on Monday, in response to a question from Liberal MP John McCallum, who asked about all banner purchases government-wide.

These were just a few of photo backdrops purchased by the department last year. It also spent another $91,000 on banners for the G8 and G20 events in Gatineau, Toronto and the Muskokas.

Tories still mum on who pays for Harper's hair and make-up lady

Tue, 01 Feb 2011 13:08:00 -0500

From responses tabled Monday to order paper questions….

Hon. Shawn Murphy:

With respect to persons who have accompanied the Prime Minister on foreign and domestic trips, for the period January 1, 2006 to October 11, 2010: (a) in what capacity does image consultant Michelle Muntean travel on transportation provided by the government; (b) does Ms. Muntean receive any remuneration from the government; (c) on what trips did Ms. Muntean travel with the Prime Minister; (d) what was the total cost associated with Ms. Muntean’s travel, broken down by the amount spent on (i) transportation, (ii) accommodations, (iii) per diems, (iv) meals, (v) all other expenses; (e) which government department or agency paid for expenses incurred as a result of Ms. Muntean’s travel; (f) have any outside individuals, groups or organizations paid for any of Ms. Muntean’s travel expenses; (g) what bills have been sent to individuals, groups or organizations for Ms. Muntean’s travel expenses; (h) what are the names of the individuals, other than Ms. Muntean, not employed by the government, excluding the Prime Minister’s spouse and children, who have accompanied the Prime Minister on domestic or foreign travel; (i) in what capacity did the individuals in (h) travel on transportation provided by the government; (j) on what trips have the individuals in (h) traveled with the Prime Minister; (k) for the individuals in (h), what was the total cost associated with their travel, broken down by the amount spent on (i) transportation, (ii) accommodations, (iii) per diems, (iv) meals, (v) all other expenses; (l) which government department or agency paid for the expenses in (k); (m) have any outside individuals, groups or organizations paid for any of the travel expenses in (k); and (n) what bills have been sent to the individuals, groups or organizations in (m)?

Mrs. Sylvie Boucher (Parliamentary Secretary for Status of Women, CPC):

Mr. Speaker, the Privy Council Office has no records or information on travel expenses for non-government individuals between January 1, 2006 and October 11, 2010.

UPDATE: Anyone else find it weird that this went to the parl sec for Status of Women to answer?

Beer and cigarettes: Does the REAL Scott Reid know about this?

Tue, 01 Feb 2011 12:00:06 -0500

An email from Conservative MP Scott Reid`s office circulated today on Parliament Hill:

De : Reid, Scott - M.P
Envoyé : 1 février 2011 10:57
À : - BQ: ADJOINTS; - BQ DÉPUTÉS/MEMBERS; - BLOC: COMMUNICATION; - BLOC: ADMINISTRATION; - INDEPENDENT MEMBERS/DÉPUTÉS INDÉPENDANTS; - LIBERAL ASSISTANTS; - LIBERAL MEMBERS/DÉPUTÉS; - LIBERAL OPPOSITION LEADER/CHEF DE L’OPPOSITION LIBÉRALE; - LIBERAL RESEARCH BUREAU; - NDP CAUCUS SERVICES; - NDP/NPD ASSISTANTS; - NDP MEMBERS/DÉPUTÉS NPD
Objet : Amazing Xerox Top-Quality Printer Up For Grabs! Can’t Miss!

Hey!

We have a Xerox Phaser 6250 printer up for grabs. This is a very expensive high-quality printer that includes all of the toner. We also have 7 boxes of brand new toner for it, which is included.

http://www.office.xerox.com/printers/color-printers/phaser-6250/enus.html

We have gotten a lot of life out of it, so it is a seasoned machine, but it still prints.

For it, we will accept beer, cigarettes or your best offer. Make an offer! It is located in 440-C Centre Block.

This is a private machine, not House property.

Thanks.

Webscraping Wikileaks

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 12:21:33 -0500

Now that it appears Wikileaks will continue to roll out its diplomatic cables into the foreseeable future, the challenge for journalists is to keep tabs on the enormous amount of data pouring out on a near-daily basis.

I just finished pulling together a Wikileaks webscraper for my colleagues at Postmedia. It’s a computer script, written in Python, that checks in on a Wikileaks mirror every ten minutes to see if there have been new cables posted. It then downloads the new stuff to a database on my own server.

We’re really interested in only references to Canada or Canadians in the correspondence, so the script runs through a list of relevant keywords against the new cables. When it finds a match, it emails an alert to me, my editor and Postmedia’s Ottawa bureau with a link to the cable.

From there, it’s up to actual humans to read the cables and decide if they’re worth following up. Most, of course, are not. (I might turn this into a Twitter robot to crowdsource this part of the work.)

Webscraping is a powerful technology that I’m finding increasingly useful, especially in Canada, where sometimes it’s the only way to assemble a useable dataset of government records. Unlike the U.S., we have no open-data culture at the federal government level, unfortunately.

There are a few new web-based services that will do webscraping for you. Needlebase and Outwit Hub are two. I haven’t played with them yet but my colleague Chad Skelton at the Vancouver Sun tells me they tend to respect prohibitions against scraping in robots.txt files, which can be a problem.

No matter how good these pay-to-scrape services, they will never be as customizable as a home-brewed scraping script.

Yet another reason for journalists to learn to code.

(If there’s interest, I’ll do a talk on webscraping at the upcoming Canadian Association of Journalists convention in Ottawa in May).