By David Farrell
Globe & Mail stubbing out pot publication in Feb.
The euphoria over predicted pot sales hasn’t materialized and now The Globe and Mail has announced its Cannabis Professional will be discontinued as a stand-alone product as of Feb. 1. Lanna Crucefex, communications manager for the newspaper now advises that coverage “will be incorporated into our award-winning Report on Business.”
Analysts expected retail cannabis to be a multi-billion-dollar sector by the end of 2019, but Statistics Canada figures show sales were just shy of $1B. — David Yasvinski, The GrowthOp
The station that would become CFCF made radio history 100 years
On May 20, 1920, a large group of Canada’s most eminent scholars gathered in the ballroom of Ottawa’s Château Laurier Hotel for a live concert.
The twist was that the performance was taking place in Montreal.
Two hundred kilometres away, in experimental radio station XWA on William St. in Griffintown, soprano Dorothy Lutton sang two ballads that were “quite distinctly heard in all parts of the hall” in Ottawa, the Montreal Gazette reported the next morning.
Canada’s radio age was underway. –– Marian Scott, Montreal Gazette
APTN and Rogers Sportsnet broadcasting NHL games in Plains Cree
Clarence Iron is the play-by-play announcer with host Earl Wood and analyst John Chabot in the first of six games to be broadcast in Plains Cree this season. — CP
Best Buy is selling a TV that costs $100K
The 98" model costs almost twice as much as what the average Canadian makes in a year. According to Statistics Canada, as of January 2019, the average weekly salary for Canadians was $1,011.62, or just over $52,000 a year. –– Colin Leggett, Narcity
Bell Canada using AI to block spam calls
Bell has developed network technology based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) that could block approximately 120 million more fraudulent telephone calls per month than Bell is able to stop using call-blocking methods currently mandated by the CRTC. –– Newswire
The last radio station
North of Silicon Valley, protected by the Point Reyes National Seashore, is the only operational ship-to-shore maritime radio station. Bearing the call sign KPH, the Point Reyes Station is the last of its kind. — Chris Gates, TechCrunch
Clearview facial recognition technology has police forces gawking
More than 600 law enforcement agencies have started using Clearview in the past year, according to the company, which declined to provide a list. The computer code underlying its app, analyzed by The New York Times, includes programming language to pair it with augmented-reality glasses; users would potentially be able to identify every person they saw. The tool could identify activists at a protest or an attractive stranger on the subway, revealing not just their names but where they lived, what they did and whom they knew. –– Kashmir Hill, NYT
Rogers Stadium during a rainy walkthrough in 2025.Courtesy Photo