iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 05/10/2026

TechCrunch says I'm interfering with the intended operation of their web site. Looks like the intended purpose of their site is to show me advertising. Looks like I'm adding the entire web site to the #adBlocker list.

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 25/09/2026

I saw this little one person electric vehicle in a mall parking lot the other day and then again blocking traffic on a 60 km/h road nearby where I'm pretty sure the Ontario electric vehicle experiment doesn't allow them. I wondered because I don't think there's any […] [Original post on mstdn.ca]

Cute little red car with cheeky front license plate, driving across the lanes in a shopping mall parking lot.

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 18/09/2026

I should take a camera on the dog's every first trip out in the morning. Today's surprise was a cluster of large ink cap mushrooms under the tree. (Tennis ball for scale.)

A cluster of ink cap mushrooms, each one taller than the tennis ball. The top surface of the caps has already melted away to expose the gills.

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 04/09/2026

A Vancouver strip clup was banned by Instagram for a cheeky marquee sign. No, not that kind of cheeky. #elbowsUp youtu.be/T2XpPL2vkcg

Changeable letter sign above the strip club entrance says "Can't handle a pool but wants our lake?"

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 01/09/2026

I've been waiting for this weed at the edge of the driveway to flower, so I was rewarded with a free green sweat bee as I took a picture. It turned out to be an aster. I'll try to relocate it later. #gardening

New England aster with metallic green sweat bee. The plant is about elbow high with flowers that have purple rays and yellow center.

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 01/09/2026

While I was trying to answer my What Is This Ugly Thing On My Plant question, it started getting larger and a pale white asian ladybug crawled out of the lower end. The third photo is a different asian ladybug on the same plant. #ladybug #pupae #gardening

An asian ladybug pupa on the top side of a leaf. It's orange with spots that look a bit like the earlier nymphs.

A pale, nearly white ladybug emerges. It's thorax has black markings, but the wing covers are not showing spots.

A different adult asian ladybug from the same plant.

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 01/09/2026

I was looking up a word origin and I'm kinda astounded to learn that Wiktionary was available in 1881. #misinformation

Google confidently claims that Scottish physicist Sir James Alfred Ewing coined the modern scientific term "hysteresis" in 1881 on the Wiktionary definition platform.

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 08/08/2026

This drawing of a mousetrap was in a thumbnail for an article which might also not have been written by a human. I suppose the prompt asked for a key on a mousetrap but forgot to ask for a realistic one.

1 - the spring should be on the center wire
2 - the trip lever should be attached to the staple
3 - the staple is permanently restraining the trap arm
4 - the teeth on the trip lever...

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 25/07/2026

Another example of why I don't believe AI is going to replace humans. The automatic captions should read "Globe and Mail journalist Andrew Coyne"

YouTube app caption for an interview reads "global male journalist Andrew coin", messing up "Globe and" as global, Mail (like postal mail) as male, a man, and last name c o y n e as money.

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 16/07/2026

Somebody tell the Americans that we adjusted the wind a bit, and ask if that's any better?

Screenshot from windy.com with the smoke layer turned on. Smoke from fires in Minnesota and Ontario is now in a band across the Great Lakes, well south of my house, and into New York.

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 28/06/2026

From the article "The vehicle was impounded for a week, and the driver’s license was pulled for 90 days." I can't imagine him going to pick it up at the impound lot. Arnprior man charged after ditching flaming vehicle on Highway 29 | 96.1 Renfrew Today […] [Original post on mstdn.ca]

A photo of the burned out shell of a formerly white car. Tires are gone and the car is an obvious write-off.

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 22/05/2026

The newest flower on my phalaenopsis orchid is yellow. Did the other flowers start out yellow and fade to white? I don't remember. I also didn't remember how to spell phalaenopsis. #bloomscrolling #orchids

One yellow and purple phalaenopsis orchid flower stands in front of three white and purple flowers. The flowers are most purple on the lower petal and fades outwards in stripes from there.

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 29/04/2026

I was taking pictures in the grocery store to show how it was laid out, and somehow got this surreal image of the vegetable guy. #pixelart from a #google pixel phone

Most of the photo seems normal. Foreground is shopping cart, background is blurry vegetable display. The cart with boxes of vegetables looks normal, but the person in dark clothing has become a number of horizontal slices.

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 11/04/2026

You've probably seen how the police like to do press announcements with a display of drugs and guns laid out on a table. Well, this isn't it. #police #press

Hong Kong police show off a collection of brass flush valves stolen from public toilets.
There are four complete flush assemblies and some screwdrivers and wrenches.

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 26/03/2026

This is patently stupid; #YouTube seems to think I'm a teenager. Also doesn't seem to have noticed that I'm in #Canada where there are no social media age laws. Nor do they seem to know how long I've had a gmail account. #gmail #ageverification

YouTube notice says:
Take action now to keep access to your channel. Due to a local law, you need to invite a parent to set up supervision in order to have a channel and do things like upload videos or comment.
Buttons: Not now or Get started

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 09/03/2026

Ignoring the politics in the CBC story, I was wondering about these hats. Both of these politicians appear to be wearing the same ill-fitting cowboy hat. Are they flocked plastic? Is the Calgary chamber of commerce giving them away?

Leaders of two Canadian political parties are wearing white cowboy hats that look like they're loose across their foreheads and riding on their ears. The hats are vented around the top edge and have a straight cutout at the front.

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 04/01/2026

You know how you hate being photographed while you're sleeping? More than 60 Henri Matisse artworks donated to Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/20…

Henri Matisse, Marguerite Endormie, 1820
Matisse's daughter in a painting has a regrettably relaxed expression as she sleeps.

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 14/12/2025

I find it hard to believe that using an AI to generate an article header photo of a lady with three hands is going to be cheaper than buying from a stock photo site. (Also, what **are** they looking at?)

A typical picture of some business people sitting around a conference table has obviously been generated by a computer, with a lady who has three hands. The reflection of the left side man's hand in the glass table top has fewer fingers than it should.

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 09/12/2025

The back of this address sticker from a parcel has an antenna with a tiny black dot in the middle. The tiny bump appears to be a blob of clear epoxy with an even smaller microchip inside. #RFID I presume.

A silver metal foil track is hard to see on the back of a sticker.

Under a 2x microscope with a bunch of movement to catch the light at the right angle, there is a shiny rectangle bridging a gap in the foil antenna.
It might be as big as half a millimetre.

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 06/12/2025

If my experience was so important to them, they would understand why I have an ad blocker.

Your experience is important to us. (This pop-up blocks the entire screen.)

For optimal functionality on AL.com, please disable your ad blocker before continuing.

Disable my adblocker

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 01/12/2025

I think I can see why nobody wants to subscribe to newspapers any more. The incremental cost to them of gaining my business would be very close to zero. They could charge me a dollar a year and still make money. #msm #TorontoStar

The Toronto Star website has a paywall that tries to steer me to getting a digital subscription. After the $1 introductory period they want $27.99 every 4 weeks.

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 20/11/2025

This lady appears to have astonishing energy for running hundreds of social media accounts, writing articles for Medium, being a Business Executive -- and all under so many different noms de plume. (Photo credit in alt text.) #scammers

Photo of a woman in a raincoat, leaning on a railing. Original photo by https://br.freepik.com/autor/senivpetro

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 13/11/2025

The most amazing thing about this picture is that the photographer was able to see them and stop on a snowy road before plowing into them at 80 k. #moose Northern Ont. moose herd photo goes viral […] [Original post on mstdn.ca]

Several moose are standing in the middle of the road very early in the morning. The road is partly covered in snow.

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 12/11/2025

I don't understand why anyone would want a toilet brush that can be sealed into a bucket and put **on display** in the bathroom while the brush head quietly grows mouldy. It's increasingly difficult to buy one that stays in the cleaning bucket hidden in a broom […] [Original post on mstdn.ca]

A toilet brush offered by my local hardware store comes with a tall vase-like container. The brush handle goes through a disk that becomes a lid for the container. A third inset picture shows the thing on proud display beside a toilet.

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 01/11/2025

The weather is a bit grey and sleepy but our squirrel monitor is on the job – nothing moving yet. #caturday

A tabby cat sits on a child-sized Ikea chair in front of the window. Outside is wet with fallen yellow leaves.

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 26/10/2025

@futurebird I dropped a cashew recently and forgot about it until I saw this. I wasn't sure what I was looking at until I got much closer.

A cashew nut sits on a patio paving stone, and it is covered in ants. Cashew and spruce needles for scale. The ants are very small.

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 25/09/2025

The quote toot feature has reached my instance and I already hate it for the user interface. Mostly I want to Boost, so the extra step with the Quote-but-you-can't button is just annoying. I would have preferred to have it in the three dots extra menu. #quoots #quoteToots

A somewhat transparent overlay covers the toot being boosted, with a menu at the very bottom offering two choices, Boost and Quote with the added note "You are not allowed to quote this post"

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 23/09/2025

This story is being OMG reported as an effort to disrupt the coming UN general assembly, but my follow-the-money bet is that it's just the operation that sends out the scam parking ticket text messages. #followthemoney #scammers […] [Original post on mstdn.ca]

A bare wooden floor is covered by nine black boxes, each with multiple antennas. They are wired to a router and power.

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 18/09/2025

I heard this American military plane buzzing around overhead and watched its path through the day. It left Maine, circled Ottawa for a while, did repeated near landings at an airport in New York and then went out to sea. Why Ottawa? Planning an invasion? (What? I'm […] [Original post on mstdn.ca]

Flight path from adsb exchange. Orange path colour indicates lower altitude around 2000 feet. Flight leaves Maine, doodles around Ottawa, heads towards the Trenton military base, turns around and then goes back over the border.

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 13/09/2025

We got new lamp shades from Ikea. Of course they came in boxes. #caturday

A large grey cat is in an open box. He's looking at the camera with a suspicious expression, not wanting to be disturbed.

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 07/08/2025

New (to me) bugs keep appearing in my garden. This big one visiting the mint is a great black wasp. You'd think the people naming wasps could have picked a more exciting name. #Ottawa #wasps

Great black wasp in flight from one mint flower head to another.

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 06/08/2025

I was impressed by this guy's ability to occupy four parking spaces. Maybe his other vehicle is a bread truck. (For extra credit, it's running.) #autowa #ottawa

A GM Equinox straddles four parking spaces, more into the one in the foreground.

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 25/07/2025

I dropped a cashew on the patio yesterday and forgot about it. Now it is covered in tiny black ants. I don't think I want to eat it now. #ants #insects

A cashew nut is surrounded by tiny ants, making it look like it has some horrible fungus growing on it.

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 17/07/2025

I get the impression that these people don't want anyone trying to take advantage of their "one year warranty". Required steps: * call/write to them * return the failed fixture * with cash register receipt (hard for an online purchase) * and the barcode […] [Original post on mstdn.ca]

Screenshot from the instructions pdf, text is summarized in the toot.

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 05/07/2025

I don't think he could get any closer to the fan. #dogs

A large black and white dog lies on his side with his ear up in the breeze. He is not quite interfering with the oscillating base of the fan.

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 02/07/2025

While assembling another Ikea bookcase, I remembered that I had previously made a little tool for getting these accursed pegs in straight. I don't know why something like this isn't available from Ikea. #ikea #ikeahacks

A small cylinder, made from two pieces of scrap plastic, is shown beside the Ikea fastener that it holds upright during assembly. The lower hole is slightly larger to accommodate the shoulder at the bottom of the fastener.

A small cylinder, made from two pieces of scrap plastic, is shown holding an Ikea fastener upright for screwing into the panel. The lower part of the hole is slightly larger to accommodate the shoulder at the bottom of the fastener.

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 02/07/2025

I'm thinking Metro doesn't really want us to notice that the fruit is coming from the U.S. This sign was at knee level and not well lit. I'll give them credit for not putting a grocer's apostrophe in nectarines. #ElbowsUp

The knee level grocery store tag on the fruit says TREE RIPENED NECTARINES and then Product of U.S.A. in tiny letters.

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 29/06/2025

While I was looking up the #spindizzy and the space faring cities, the stupid #GoogleAI was willing to agree that these were written by Robert Heinlein and invented a whole new story about them. At least Heinlein's book exists: Have Space Suit—Will Travel […] [Original post on mstdn.ca]

Screenshot of AI Overview from Google search includes this: "Heinlein spindizzy refers to a fictional antigravity device invented by Robert A Heinlein specifically appearing in Have Spacesuit – Will Travel"
and also includes this: "The term spindizzy is also used in other science fiction contexts but it's most strongly associated with Heinlein 's works"

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 28/06/2025

I put a camera out to survey the wildlife. It has picked up bluejays, black squirrels, little red squirrels and this midnight mouse. My frequent chipmunks are gone. I'd say the mouse removal could be going poorly. #pestcontrol

A midnight visit from a deer mouse who hasn't been to the neighborhood poison feeder.

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 27/06/2025

I know it's a small thing among current global horrors, but I'm sad because these back yard cuties have been killed off by a "pest control" company. My neighbor saw a mouse in his house. The pest control expert surrounded the house with outdoor "bait stations" […] [Original post on mstdn.ca]

A chipmunk looks at the camera while visiting the birdbath.

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 23/06/2025

@ifixcoinops I replaced my fridge water valve recently when it started leaking where the saddle met the copper pipe. To be fair it was probably 40 years old. I put a T in to replace the part with the hole drilled into it, and now it looks much nicer.

A copper T replaces a damaged part of a house water pipe, and leads to a small shut-off valve with a 3 eighths inch connection to the tube going to the fridge.

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 16/06/2025

Pictures from The Atlantic show jersey barriers and tall black fencing between the adoring crowds and the military parade. Whoever organised this was afraid of something. #uspoli

Picture from above the parade route showing marching men in green and a wide separation from the people watching.

Picture from behind some people on the parade route showing them trying to get photos through a black fence.

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 14/06/2025

Absently, I try to rub this blemish off my shirt every time I notice it in my peripheral vision. It takes a few tries before I look and remember that these are holes caused by carrying the cat when the doorbell rang and the dog went off. #caturday

Torn holes in a cotton knit T shirt, about 4 mm across, caused by the cat's back claws as she launched herself off my abdomen. Yes, there was blood.

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 12/06/2025

TIL that Utah has tar sands which were being mined a hundred years ago without any concern for rehabilitating the site. The tar seams are a few feet wide and as much as a thousand feet deep, leaving a huge trap for unsuspecting people and animals. Gilsonite mines […] [Original post on mstdn.ca]

Aerial photo of a very large trench, wider than the tire track road beside it, and filled with a huge quantity of bracing lumber left to rot. Vegetation is sparse because this is Utah desert. Photo is from the linked article.

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 04/06/2025

CTV News is now calling Trump's latest output a "proclamation" – a word we usually use for announcements from royalty. #KingDonald

Screenshot of a CTV news item that starts " U.S. President Donald Trump issued a proclamation Tuesday, doubling tariffs on ..."

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 21/05/2025

@ai6yr We're using this Dr Beckmann brand, which definitely works. I'm impressed with the German labelling I found while looking for pictures. My box is boring "Colour and Dirt Collector."

German labelling says
Dr Beckmann
Farb & Schmutz Fänger ECO

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 08/04/2025

@hacks4pancakes If you were asleep, you missed being able to turn anything off.

Price graph shows a huge spike at 7 a.m.

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 16/03/2025

Among the many Nicole Fediverse Chick profiles I've seen, this is the first one to give a street address for a workplace. It's a grocery store in Woodbridge, Ontario, and I don't believe it for a minute. #FediverseChick

Hi, I'm Nicole! But you can call me the Fediverse Chick
I'm a proud Polish girl from Toronto (29 y/o)
I'm currently taking the pre-health sciences program at George Brown College
hoping to get into the medical field someday!

JOINED
Mar 08, 2025

WORK (this is a grocery store)
Fortinos Woodbridge Highway 27
RR3, 8585 Hwy 27, Woodbridge, ON L4L 1A7, Canada

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Sam Oldman 🐀 @samloonie.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · 14/03/2025

The City of Ottawa is buying ads on YouTube to promote shopping local. Yes, the city outline really is roughly heart-shaped. #ShopCanada #ElbowsUp

The words Shop local. Buy Canadian. appear beside a Canadian flag. The flag has been modified to place a heart-shaped outline of the city in place of the maple leaf.
The title of the CBC piece I'm viewing is "Canada's link to the man who burned the White House"

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