Category: Ottawa

Posts about Canada’s capital city, and the experience of living there

Cold, glass, and condensation

Users of cameras and eyeglasses will be familiar with the phenomenon of fogging, which occurs when one goes from a cold and dry place into a warm one. This occurs because air can hold about 7% more water per unit of volume for each ˚C of additional temperature. That means that air in warm places is naturally more laden with water than that in cold ones. When the water-laden air hits cool glass, it condenses into a fog that confounds the bespecktacled and shutterbugs.

The other night, I witnessed a special elaboration of this phenomenon unique to conditions including (a) a very cold and dry night (b) a fairly large volume of glass and (c) an instant transition to a warm and relatively humid coffee shop.

The normal fogging occurred, but it would not dissipate after several minutes of waiting. It was then that I noticed that the glass on which the fog had formed was cold enough to freeze it – leaving a thin sheet of ice of the lens. The remedy was a few minutes of huffing to melt the ice, followed by a few more waiting for evaporation.

I am a bit surprised not to have experienced this working with cameras in Finland or Estonia. Like getting mild frostbite walking home from a party, it seems to be an Ottawa experience.

Cyclists running red lights

A few minutes ago, while I was cycling east on Somerset in search of groceries, I came up behind another cyclist heading in the same direction. She was dressed in all black, wearing earmuffs, and not using any lights or reflectors. As we approached an intersection near the Umi Cafe, the light went red. She carried on for 1/3 of a block, went right through it, and carried on beyond there.

When I caught up with her in the next block, I stated bluntly that riding right through a red light is a crime, and that doing so when it is nearly completely dark, you aren’t illuminated, and when others may be about to make left turns is fairly dangerous as well. As cyclists, we cannot expect drivers to expect invisible, illegal moves on our part. We definitely bear primary responsibility for any accidents that result.

This being Somerset Street, I found myself stuck at the next red light, engaging in a very awkward (though not hostile) back-and forth-about the importance of illumination and following traffic rules. Less expectably, but more awkwardly, I ran into her again at the Herb & Spice checkout: she buying organic cranberries, me buying sun-dried tomatoes, red peppers, and hot sauce. To her credit, she was very courteous about the whole thing, and seemed to take my commenting as well-intentioned scolding rather than a maliciously motivated personal attack.

I do believe it’s very important for cyclists to make themselves visible and behave legally and predictably in traffic. A lot of drivers who are generally sympathetic to cyclists seem to consider the violation of traffic rules as the most objectionable thing about bikes. It is also sensible and efficient to require cyclists to follow minimum standards in terms of conduct and visibility: taking responsibility for those elements of their own safety they can actually control.

Despite her tactful responses, I hope I don’t run into her at a future dinner party, Ottawa event, etc.

Salade Spot in Gatineau

Those who work in Gatineau should consider Restaurant Salade Spot as a quicker and cheaper alternative to Gaia. Located at 175 Promenade de Portage, it sells wraps and salads starting at $4.50 and $5.50 respectively. For $7.90, I got a large spinach salad with artichoke hearts, tomatoes, green olives, black beans, hard boiled eggs, blue cheese, and honey mustard dressing – including the $2.00 cost for a re-usable plastic container for it. Those who buy or bring a re-usable container get two free extra ingredients for their salad. Mine was markedly better than an equally filling meal of similar price from Marcello’s or Subway.

Apparently, they also source as many of their ingredients as possible locally. All told, it is definitely a place worth trying for those working in Place de Portage, les Terrasses de la Chaudière, and the vicinity.

[Update: 14 April 2009] It seems Salade Spot went bankrupt. I went there for lunch today and found the windows papered over and a ‘for sale’ sign up. There was no indication that the place had relocated, rather than shut down.

Brunch with Ottawa bloggers

Last weekend involved a brunch attended by local bloggers, not unlike the four bloggers’ gatherings I attended in Oxford. Zoom has kindly provided the internet with her notes about what occurred and was discussed. An embarrassingly large number of items consist of esoteric topics that I raised. Many thanks to Zoom and XUP for organizing the gathering.

Incidentally, the Clocktower Pub (575 Bank Street) has a rather tasty four-cheese omelet on their brunch menu. It is both reasonably priced and very well stuffed with tasty melted cheese.

Farewell to Emily

Emily is off today: wisely fleeing the city of Ottawa before the slide towards winter accelerates. Back in May, she was charged with assessing the ‘coolness’ of Ottawa. Her very concise conclusions are now available.

Her departure is much to be regretted, though I would surely choose the same course myself if not bound here by unique employment opportunities. In any case, some photos of the summer are available online: I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII.

On patriotism

Having been exposed once again to the summer light show outside parliament, I find myself thinking about patriotism once again. It seems to me that you can approach it from two different directions. In the first case, you develop a list of virtues that a country might possess. These could include a good human rights record, international generosity, the rule of law, and so forth. You then evaluate any particular state on the basis of your pre-existing preferences. The alternative is to simply assert the unique value of a particular state, as derived from its history and so forth.

The first approach strikes me as far more valid. It is absurd for someone to assert the superiority of their country in a non-comparative fashion, or without relation to particular characteristics which establish a state as worthy or unworthy of admiration. Admiring states as means to desirable ends has a fundamentally liberal quality, while the alternative is mythical, with a distinct whiff of fascism.

In general, love of country seems more dangerous than beneficial. We can certainly admire states that do a good job of advancing human welfare, but we should value the states only as vehicles to those ends, not as inherently valuable entities. The doctrine of “my country, right or wrong” seems unacceptable in a world with so much experience of nationalist war and state sponsored moral outrages.

Back from Vermont

Today, Emily and I made our way safely back to Ottawa. We also played what may have been the first ever game of Scrabble Hold-Em, with generally positive reviews.

Tomorrow, it is back to work – to face a ‘pending’ pile of unknown size and content.

P.S. As native Vancouverites, it is unusual for Emily and I to come home and find significant growth of fungal and insect life inside of our dwelling after twelve days away. Evicting the fruit flies seems likely to be a time consuming process. Ottawa’s heat and humidity takes getting used to, on several quite different fronts.

Re-encrypting WiFi

Unfortunately, I had to shut down my open wireless network experiment. That is because I found three people within the span of two days who were both (a) criminal and (b) very stupid.

One thing to remember: if you are going to use open wireless networks to download illegal things, make sure you aren’t sharing your entire hard drive in read/write mode. Not only will the person running the network get wise to you without even needing to sniff packets, they will be able to remotely eliminate your ill-gotten files before banning you from the network. If they were so inclined, they could do much worse things to you.

I suppose I could set up a captive portal system using something like ZoneCD – thus providing scope for well behaved neighbours and passers by to use the network. That would, however, require acquiring and setting up a computer between my DSL modem and WAP. Since the two are presently integrated, the expense and bother would be even greater.

As is so always the case, a few bad apples have made it necessary to discontinue a good thing.