Skagit River bridge collapse on I-5 (video)

The ongoing (and deliberate) deterioration of American’s infrastructure continues. Skagit River Bridge on I-5, collapses after being considered “functionally obsolete” since 2010.

Three drivers barely escape with their lives.

Traffic will be diverted to Routes 20, 9, 536, 538 and other detours for weeks or even months.

Ottawa – hub of “Apple-picking”?

Here we are, strangers in a strange land this week in Canada. All of us Seattle residents use ONLY Microsoft products (wink-wink). We have no idea what this fruit company is that makes gadgets and stuff. Apparently, there is a company called “Apple” and they make iPhones or something? (We use Bing in Seattle so our searches are very limited therefore we have no idea what Apple is). Anyway, people love these Apple things so much that there is a $30 billion (USD) black market on the resale of stolen Apple products.

No one has ever, ever tried to steal any of our Microsoft gadgets. We once left a Zune wrapped in $100 bills outside of a crack house for weeks. The Zune and cash were untouched because the crackheads said they didn’t want money tainted with “Zune germs.”

We’re presently here in Ottawa which, according to CTV News, is a hotbed of “Apple-picking” ie. the targeted theft and pickpocketing of all things Apple.

A quick poll along an Ottawa transit station shows many have either had their smartphones snatched or knows someone who has.

One way in which these thieves find their marks is by seeking out folks wearing those iconic white ear buds. A stolen iPhone can easily get you $800 (CAN).

The best defense against being a target of Apple-picking? Use anything with Windows 8. If you actually write “Windows 8″ on anything, even your Apple stuff, thieves will run the other way.

The 1st Annual Boring Awards: Ottawa voted Canada’s most boring city

Ottawa Rideau Canal

“Ottawa” – it’s Native American for “watching paint dry”

We thought we were visiting Canada during its most interesting week in years – Toronto’s crack-smoking mayor, all kinds of Mountie scandals, and the Canadian Senate is like something out of House of Cards. Hell, right now, we are in the nation’s capital – Ottawa, the heart of it all. The Ottawa Senators are the only Canadian hockey team still in the NHL playoffs and it has lightninged so often that you’d think Thor and Zeus were wrestling in the sky.

So it surprised us when Laughology announced their inaugural Boring Awards and voted Ottawa the most boring city in all of Canada.

Ottawa seems plenty fun – the squirrels are black, they just now got crop tops, and jaywalking is the official local sport. Ottawa is fun in an ironic way, ya know, in a fun-free kind of way. But we guess Canucks just don’t find the fun in Ottawa’s safe, practical and culture-free environment.

Ottawa being boring is a “thing” btw. There’s even a movie called The City That Fun Forgot. Here’s the trailer:

Ottawa is a beautiful place. It’s a safe place (especially if you stay away from Vanier). It’s a reliable place. How can anyone find a place boring that produced the likes of Paul Anka? You wouldn’t say that the music of Paul Anka is boring, would you?