The CBC’s falcon cam page have become immensely popular. This week the page passed a million hits. The page streams the current activities of a family of peregrine falcons in Winnipeg.

THURSDAY UPDATE: Looks like the banding operation may be underway. I saw a couple of safety lines near the nest this morning. Yesterday the site said the “banding of the three peregrine falcon chicks will happen Thursday morning (weather permitting).”

Today an update on the site reads “The banding of the three peregrine falcon chicks will happen at 11:00am Thursday morning (weather permitting).”

Since it launched on May 18th, the page has become one of the most popular at cbc.ca, averaging about 50,000 views a day. About a week after the page launched the falcons hatched three chicks.

	2 Comments »	Email This Post
	Asides	Posted at 8:45 am (18 Jun 2009)

For the first time in their 78-year history, the Vatican will carry ads on their radio channels, as long as they are morally and ethically sound.

In a comment that sounds eerily familiar, The Holy See told the Times Online that “Vatican radio costs over twenty million Euros to run but generates no income.”

Vatican Radio employs about 200 people, and broadcasts Catholic themed news to the world.

The full story is here.

	Add Comment »	Email This Post
	Asides	Posted at 11:51 am (27 May 2009)

Dozens of staff at the CBC building in Toronto has had funds stolen from their account in the last 24 hours by someone who hacked their debit cards. The banks are robo-calling customers to notify them.

If you use a debit card you should check it immediately. An internal memo says the transaction appear as “a straight withdrawal, or a phony deposit followed by a withdrawal.” Some of the withdrawal are for as much as $500, and occurred as early as Monday.

If your account has been hacked call your bank, have the card deactivated, and the withdrawal reversed.

Apparently the fraud seems to be connected to a debit or ATM machine near or in the CBC building or in the food court downstairs. “It’s not clear which machine is involved, and banks generally do not reveal this information. Our security team has been in touch with the CBC Credit Union, vendors in the Broadcasting Centre, and the security manager for Simcoe Place and Metro Hall,” Zissis Liolios, a building manager, said in an email.

In the meantime don’t use your card around the building and you may want to change your PIN.

	3 Comments »	Email This Post
	Asides	Posted at 12:14 pm (06 May 2009)

It seems some prankster has created a parody Twitter account for Peter Mansbridge.

The account is using the handle “petermansbridg.” It’s obviously a joke. For instance one of the fake updates after the Billy Bob Thornton interview says “Ghomeshi needs all the help he can get. I beat him in an arm wrestle last week at our local on Front - didn’t even loosen my tie.”

Another tweet written after the layoff announcements reads “Helping 800 CBCers pack their desks. Many have never witnessed a grown ‘Bridge cry…until today. Farewell noble colleagues!”

There’s been a whole bunch of fake or parody Twitter accounts pop up in the last few months, a practice known as Twitter Jacking or Phweeting (phony tweetering). The list of people with parody accounts includes among others: Vladimir Putin, Osama bin Laden, Dick Cheney, David Letterman, and Lindsay Lohan.

All parody aside, there is some risk to these kinds of phony accounts, especially when they are being used to write to real people. The fake Mansbridge account includes one reply to Ian Capstick, a communications consultant and blogger in Ottawa. The post reads “your bio pics are dreamy. who did them? i need some done.”

To which Ian Capstick replied in the comments below “You know, I’ve never laughed harder at an @reply on Twitter before…and I’m not sure there is any risk of folks mistaking @petermansbridg for the real one for long; speaking of which I hope the real Peter Mansbridge sees that @PeterMansbridge seems to be available. We would love to see him on Twitter.”

	14 Comments »	Email This Post
	Asides, Personalities	Posted at 10:46 am (28 Apr 2009)

If you’ve been to the CBC headquarters in Toronto lately you’ll have noticed the massive vinyl ads going up over the building promoting CBC shows and personalities.

Paul Gorbould wrote about this on his blog, saying “The atrium looks like the hood of a NASCAR vehicle.” My personal favourite is the huge Rick Mercer near the Front street turnstile (pictured above), although Jian guarding the smoking area in case Billy Bob Thornton comes back and tries to smoke outside the line is pretty funny to think about.

	8 Comments »	Email This Post
	Asides	Posted at 1:57 pm (20 Apr 2009)

^{This photo was submitted by Eric Foss, a producer with Sunday}

If you’ve got some shots from work lying around on your hard drive you should submit them to the CBC photo competition. Winners will entered into the CONTACT photography festival.

The deadline for the competition is Friday 5 p.m. ET. To date there’s been 98 pictures submitted. You can see all the submissions here.

To submit, email your pictures to photos@cbc.ca and fill out and send the release form. This competition is only open to CBC employees, for the full guidelines see here.

	2 Comments »	Email This Post
	Asides, Behind the Scenes	Posted at 11:20 am (09 Apr 2009)

Seems like the tea-makers blog has pulled off a redesign just in time for April 1st. They must have been working long into the night to get it done in time.

	5 Comments »	Email This Post
	Asides	Posted at 9:17 am (01 Apr 2009)

On the heels of the layoff announcements last week, a petition started at Avaaz to save the CBC.

To date 58,449 people have signed up. The petition reads:

Petition to Prime Minister Stephen Harper: The CBC and Radio Canada are a national treasure, and play a vital role in our culture. We urgently call on you to grant the CBC’s request for a bridge loan to cover its budget shortfall this year, and commit your government to supporting our public broadcasters.

A similar group has also formed on Facebook, the group page says they’ve signed up over a thousand members in the last 48 hours.

	14 Comments »	Email This Post
	Asides	Posted at 12:59 pm (30 Mar 2009)

Greg Gutfeld, the host of a Fox News show that mocked Canada’s involvement in Afghanistan and the Canadian military has apologized, saying his segment was misunderstood. 

The segment appeared on the internet over the weekend following the deaths of four soldiers in Afghanistan. Below is The National’s coverage from last night, a story from cbc.ca is here. 

The apology was issued after Defence Minister Peter MacKay demanded one yesterday.

	2 Comments »	Email This Post
	Asides	Posted at 7:29 am (24 Mar 2009)

The guys in Vancouver are looking for crew for the CBC’s Dragon Boat team, known as ‘the Wave Catchers.’

David Yee is organizing it, he says “Are you looking to break out of your regular workout routine and try something new? Or do you just like the feel of having a long blunt instrument in your hands?” If so then Dragon boating might be for you.

Training starts in April. If you’re interested his full message is after the break. [Read more →]

	8 Comments »	Email This Post
	Asides	Posted at 2:24 pm (04 Mar 2009)

‘Off The Record’ the TSN show with Michael Lansberg, recently redesigned their set. It reminded me of the set of ‘The Hour’ pictured below.

What’s that they say about imitation and flattery?

	6 Comments »	Email This Post
	Asides, The Hour with George S.	Posted at 8:00 am (27 Feb 2009)

Not that it means anything, but there’s a poll going on over at the Globe about CBC funding (scroll to half way down the page on the right). I won’t even get into the difference between additional funding and bridge financing.

	11 Comments »	Email This Post
	Asides	Posted at 4:01 pm (26 Feb 2009)

CBC staffers in Toronto put on the jerseys for a little three-on-three ball hockey tournament in the atrium today.

There were about 16 teams competing for the championship. The tournament was a lunch-time fundraiser for the charity Right to Play.

The Hour’s team won the tournament with a perfect unbeaten record of 4-0.

	Add Comment »	Email This Post
	Asides	Posted at 5:26 pm (20 Feb 2009)

It appears that the guys at Nielson (the company that does the audience surveys) have decided to disable the Reply All button from their email software.

I read about the move on Spark’s blog. The Nielson suits said:

We have noticed that the “Reply to All” functionality results in unnecessary inbox clutter. Beginning Thursday we will eliminate this function, allowing you to reply only to the sender.

I gotta say this sounds like sweet salvation to me. These endless reply-all conversations that spread like wildfire in my inbox makes me want to go blind. Maybe disabling the button is a little extreme, but a least it’ll make it stop.

What do you think?

	11 Comments »	Email This Post
	Asides	Posted at 11:25 pm (04 Feb 2009)

This image is from a 1968 promotional poster for CBC TV. I’ve cropped out the top part of the poster, but it used to read:

Television Is … the eyes and ears of today. A glimpse at tomorrow. Television is front-row seats on opening night and the thrill of an intercepted pass. It’s exploring the universe and expanding the mind. It’s the violence of war and the striving for peace. Television is emotions and ideas, politics and poetry. It’s bright, bold, exciting programming. Television is CBC TV.

I found the image on Connor Molloy’s Flickr page.

	4 Comments »	Email This Post
	Asides	Posted at 4:16 pm (27 Jan 2009)