The city has announced a $60-million cash injection to restart the economy whenever that becomes possible.
I must be getting desensitized, because my first thought was how little $60 million is, and how it’s like a small pat of butter for a large loaf of bread.
Pianist André Gagnon, who played both sides of the aisle with classical and pop, has died at 84.
The CBC has backed off on doing paid content that looks exactly like their own news reports. The program, called Tandem, will still be launched, but with clear demarcation so the categories can’t easily be mixed up.
There was a couple of recent Freakonomics radio podcasts that raised the idea that traditional television and online advertising is mostly useless as a means of converting dollars into customers. If that’s right, it seems like the only way that this project makes sense is precisely if it doesn’t have that demarcation or whatever, flagging that it’s advertising.
That podcast made a great point: in our world, everyone hates advertising and considers it to be this huge affront to their dignity when they’re confronted with a paid message, but would you really prefer to pay for all the services and information that are now currently free because of advertising? Ie. if the advertising industry collapsed, as one Freakonomics interviewee believes is in the cards, then how would you adjust to paying for email, news, apps, etc.?
Seems like what the CBC tried to do here is the absolutely inevitable future, if we want to keep getting information for free.
Great news. Our public broadcaster is acting according to it’s mandate to serve the public interest.
@david*: CBC is not free. We pay for it as tax payers. I do agree that other OTA channels, which are not state funded, are free.
Oh crap. So we won’t be able to enjoy “intelligently designed multi-platform Branded Content campaigns, anchored in experiences that leave a measurable impression on our audience.” ?
Has anyone ever laughed while watching Schitt’s Creek?
I watched a video of “their funniest lines” and it was as comical as an escalator being repaired.
Tax money for this?
I quite liked Schitt’s Creek. I don’t think a video compilation would do it justice if you’ve not watched the show, though. Most of the funny lines are only funny in the context of the characters’ development.
Also, I think Schitt’s Creek turned a profit for the CBC. I’d rather they make money selling content rather than “advertorials”.
I suppose you’re right, dhomas. You have to be used to “watching the show” for the jokes to work. That way, the characters (and the routine of watching) become part of your life.
I know I probably shouldn’t feed a known troll, but dude lighten up! Why are you so judge-y about how people get their entertainment?
I howled at the rural teen boys shoplifting toner and skin cream—but it’s not a one-liner, it’s the whole damn scene.
Since we’ve moved to the quality of Canadian TV comedy, what’s with all the hype about that supposed “classic”, Slings and Arrows? I’m catching up with it now, and I haven’t laughed yet (though still in season 1).
Public health rules for stores will be tightened as of Friday and Christmas gatherings are disallowed now in red zones, i.e. most of Quebec.
Aaron Derfel’s numbers for Thursday. Not cheery reading.
The mayor said this week that there would be no Polytechnique memorial this year. The 31st anniversary is on Sunday.
None? Not even online? But countless voices tell us it’s just as good! /s
A onetime Hasidic couple went to court to establish that Quebec had failed them in not ensuring that they received adequate education as promised in law. The judge turned them down, saying that Quebec has now made sufficient changes ensuring that Hasidic kids are taught the standard curriculum, which was Yochonon Lowen’s purpose for being in court.
Interesing to contrast this couple’s experience in religious schooling with the controversy over religious headgear in schools.
Very different narratives.
Is it?
Isn’t it about choice?
We owe as much protection to women who wear a hijab as to women who don’t want to wear a hijab, There’s nothing contradictory.
The entire metro system is now linked to cellular service with Angrignon the last station to be added to the network.
This article from when the project began gives some technical details about how the system works. In the tunnels your voice and data are carried by waveguides with holes in them every so often. Fibre optic cables tie the whole thing together. Design-wise, it’s very unlike your tower-based networks.
https://www.itworldcanada.com/article/montreal-metro-fires-up-subway-mobile-wireless-service/100101
Although Ottawa promised to fund extending the REM to the airport, money mentioned in the recent federal financial update is meant to be shared out to a lot of other airports as well, and is not enough for the REM spur.
Now that the Museum of Fine Arts has abandoned plans for a Riopelle wing, and the planned technical hub for teenagers won’t be happening at the old St‑Sulpice library, the idea is being floated to use the empty library building for the Riopelle collection.
An abstract expressionist art collection does not seem to be a good fit for a Beaux-arts building.
That crossed my mind, but Riopelle came out of the culture that created that building, and if it’s suitably renovated inside, the contrast from the classically French exterior to a spare, minimalist interior might itself be a recapitulation of evolution in aesthetic style.
That’s how I’d write the copy, anyway : )
The interior is « classé » as much as the exterior; there is very little you can do (and should do) to alter the architecture inside.
City ombudsman Nadine Mailloux says she has received 300 complaints this year about bike paths.
Maybe we should start making complaints about unsafe pedestrian crossings and dangerous motorists. Let’s see how many that adds up to. I would bet that many of those 300 complaints come from a very small group of people.
Months ago there was a story about this, and it included complaints about accessibility.
There is no information about complaints about cars, snow removal, ice, and other problems that would help the reader put this number into perspective.
CBC profiles longtime obstetrician Dr Alice Benjamin as she prepares to retire at 75. Benjamin received the Order of Canada last week.
An unbelievable doctor, she’s single handedly responsible for saving our child’s life. She will be missed.
dmdiem 08:29 on 2020-12-04 Permalink
That’s about $15 dollars for every Montrealer. Which is, ironically, about enough to buy some bread and butter.
Kate 10:41 on 2020-12-04 Permalink
It will be dolloped out to businesses and tourism, but I always wonder, with announcements like this, exactly where the cash goes. I’m not implying the city administration is corrupt, but that this seems to be how government largesse works: a big number is mentioned, but so much of it gets soaked up in administrative costs (and sometimes paying expensive PR firms to brag about the program, if it’s big enough) that the money that actually reaches the people who need it is a fraction of the original amount.
I’d love to be disabused of this impression but I suspect it’s just how the interface of government operates.
Ephraim 18:14 on 2020-12-04 Permalink
Willing to bet I don’t see a single cent?
Kate 18:39 on 2020-12-04 Permalink
Well, you have to ask. I don’t know what the process is, but squeaky wheel that shit.