Canada

Weather Forecast || ( Wed ) || ** -9 ** || ** 2 ** || ||   || **INCREASING CLOUD** ||   || ( Thu ) || ** 2 ** || ** 4 ** || ||   ||^   ||^   || **VARIABLE CLOUD** ||   ||   ||
 * **Weather Information for Toronto, Ontario **
 * //Issued at 15:01 24 Feb 2009 *// || Date |||| Temperature [|o__C__] |||| Weather ||
 * ^  || ** Minimum ** ||||^   || ** Maximum ** ||
 * 25 Feb
 * 26 Feb

Minimum || Daily Maximum ||||^  ||
 * Climatological Information ||
 * ||  || Month |||| Mean Temperature [|o__C__] || Mean Total Precipitation (mm) || Mean Number of Precipitation Days ||
 * ^  || Daily
 * Jan || ** -7.3 ** || ** -1.1 ** || ** 61.2 ** || **15.3** ||
 * Feb || ** -6.3 ** || ** -0.2 ** || ** 50.5 ** ||^  || **11.7** ||
 * Mar || ** -2.0 ** || ** 4.6 ** || ** 66.1 ** || **12.7** ||
 * Apr || ** 3.8 ** || ** 11.3 ** || ** 69.6 ** || **12.1** ||
 * May || ** 9.9 ** || ** 18.5 ** || ** 73.3 ** || **12.2** ||
 * Jun || ** 14.8 ** || ** 23.5 ** || ** 71.5 ** || **11.1** ||
 * Jul || ** 17.9 ** || ** 26.4 ** || ** 67.5 ** || **10.3** ||
 * Aug || ** 17.3 ** || ** 25.3 ** || ** 79.6 ** || **10.5** ||
 * Sep || ** 13.2 ** || ** 20.7 ** || ** 83.4 ** || **10.6** ||
 * Oct || ** 7.3 ** || ** 13.8 ** || ** 64.7 ** || **11.4** ||
 * Nov || ** 2.2 ** || ** 7.4 ** || ** 75.7 ** || **12.7** ||
 * Dec || ** -3.7 ** || ** 1.8 ** || ** 71.0 ** || **14.5** ||  ||   ||

Nearly 90% of Canadians live within 200 km of the border with the United States, which means that Canada contains vast expanses of wilderness to the north. The relationship to its powerful neighbour is a defining factor for Canada. The US and Canada have the world's largest trading relationship.
 * Canada is the second largest country in the world after Russia. Its population is only about one-fifth of Russia's however.**
 * **Full name:** Canada
 * **Population:** 33.2 million (UN, 2008)
 * **Capital:** Ottawa
 * **Largest city:** Toronto
 * **Area:** 9.9 million sq km (3.8 million sq miles)
 * **Major languages:** English, French (both official)
 * **Major religion:** Christianity
 * **Life expectancy:** 78 years (men), 83 years (women) (UN)
 * **Monetary unit:** 1 Canadian dollar = 100 cents
 * **Main exports:** Machinery and equipment, automotive products, metals and plastics, forestry products, agricultural and fishing products, energy products.
 * **International dialling code:** +1

Telephones - main lines in use 18.276 million (2005) Telephones - mobile cellular 16.6 million (2005) Telephone system general assessment excellent service provided by modern technology domestic domestic satellite system with about 300 earth stations international country code - 1; 5 coaxial submarine cables; satellite earth stations - 5 Intelsat (4 Atlantic Ocean and 1 Pacific Ocean) and 2 Intersputnik (Atlantic Ocean region) Radio broadcast stations AM 245, FM 582, shortwave 6 (2004) Radios 32.3 million (1997) Television broadcast stations 80 (plus many repeaters) (1997) Televisions 21.5 million (1997) Internet country code .ca Internet hosts 3.934 million (2006) Internet Service Providers (ISPs) 760 (2000 est.) Internet users 21.9 million (2005) Illicit drugs illicit producer of cannabis for the domestic drug market and export to US; use of hydroponics technology permits growers to plant large quantities of high-quality marijuana indoors; increasing ecstasy production, some of which is destined for the US; vulnerable to narcotics money laundering because of its mature financial services sector

Airports 1,337 (2006) Airports - with paved runways total 509 over 3,047 m 18 2,438 to 3,047 m 15 1,524 to 2,437 m 151 914 to 1,523 m 248 under 914 m 77 (2006) Airports - with unpaved runways total 828 1,524 to 2,437 m 66 914 to 1,523 m 355 under 914 m 407 (2006) Heliports 12 (2006) Pipelines crude and refined oil 23,564 km; liquid petroleum gas 74,980 km (2005) Railways total 48,467 km standard gauge 48,467 km 1.435-m gauge (2005) Roadways total 1,042,300 km paved 415,600 km (includes 17,000 km of expressways) unpaved 626,700 km (2005) Waterways 636 km note: Saint Lawrence Seaway of 3,769 km, including the Saint Lawrence River of 3,058 km, shared with United States (2007) Merchant marine total 173 ships (1000 GRT or over) 2,129,243 GRT/2,716,340 DWT by type bulk carrier 62, cargo 10, chemical tanker 9, container 2, passenger 6, passenger/cargo 63, petroleum tanker 13, roll on/roll off 8 foreign-owned 7 (Germany 3, Netherlands 1, Norway 1, US 2) registered in other countries 111 (Australia 1, Bahamas 18, Barbados 8, Cambodia 6, Cyprus 2, Denmark 1, Honduras 1, Hong Kong 28, Liberia 2, Malta 18, Marshall Islands 6, Panama 4, Russia 1, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 6, US 4, Vanuatu 5) (2006) Ports and terminals Fraser River Port, Halifax, Montreal, Port-Cartier, Quebec, Saint John's (Newfoundland), Sept-Isles, Vancouver Military branches Canadian Forces: Land Forces Command, Maritime Command, Air Command, Canada Command (homeland security) (2006) Military service age and obligation 16 years of age for voluntary military service; women comprise approximately 11% of Canada's armed forces (2001) Manpower available for military service males age 16-49 8,216,510 females age 16-49 8,034,939 (2005 est.) Manpower fit for military service males age 16-49 6,740,490 females age 16-49 6,580,868 (2005 est.) Manpower reaching military service age annually males age 18-49 223,821 females age 16-49 212,900 (2005 est.) Military expenditures - percent of GDP 1.1% (2005 est.)

BREAKING NEWS: llicit drugs illicit producer of cannabis for the domestic drug market and export to US; use of hydroponics technology permits growers to plant large quantities of high-quality marijuana indoors; increasing ecstasy production, some of which is destined for the US; vulnerable to narcotics money laundering because of its mature financial services sector. = = =**Top Ten Myths About Canada and Canadians:**=

**Canadians do not have the same technology as Americans. Canadians have access to the **
 * We live in igloos. We live in houses, and they are very well built houses. **
 * same technology as Americans and the rest of the civilized world. **


 * There is snow everywhere all year long. Anyone who has spent a summer in Vancouver, **
 * Toronto, or Montreal will strongly disagree with this. **


 * We don't get the same movies Americans do. We get the same movies, on the same day, **
 * and our censorship is less severe. Furthermore, the Paramount theater in Montreal is **
 * the most attended and most lucrative movie theater in North-America. **


 * Canada does not have a film industry. We have a thriving film industry, and many of the **
 * syndicated US TV shows, not to mention major studio motion pictures are filmed here. Canada is **
 * renowned to have some of the best production crews in the world. **


 * Canadians all say "eh" and "aboot". Sure, some of us do, but Canada is a big country with **
 * many different people who speak many different languages with different dialects. **


 * Everyone in Quebec speaks French. Although a large percentage of the Province's **
 * population is Francophone, there is also a large number of Anglophones and Allophones. **


 * Canadians have fewer guns than Americans. Canadians have just as many, if not more; we just **
 * have fewer murders. If you want stats and figures, see Michael Moore's excellent documentary, Bowling for Columbine. **


 * Canada's national sport is Hockey. Not completely true. While Hockey is very popular, and considered **
 * our national pastime, our national sport is Lacrosse. Oh, and we invented Baseball too. **


 * Canadians policemen are all Mounties dressed in red uniforms. Our cops are the same **
 * as American cops. The Mounties usually only dress up in red for for special occasions. **

=The Golden Hand Myth:= He never paid much attention to the neighbors living on his city block until the day the pretty middle-aged widow moved in two doors down from him. She was plump and dark with sparkling eyes, and she always wore dark gloves on her hands, even indoors. He went out of his way to meet her, and they often "bumped" into each other in the street and stood talking. One day, as she brushed the hair back from her forehead, he caught a glimpse of gold under the glove on her right arm. When he asked her about it, she grinned coquettishly and told him that she had lost one hand a few years back and now wore a golden hand in its place. In that moment, a terrible lust woke in his heart - not to possess the lady herself, but to possess the solid gold hand that she wore under her long black gloves. He courted the widow with every stratagem known to him; flowers, trips to the theater, gifts, compliments. And he won her heart. Within a month, they were standing in front of a minister, promising to love one another until death parted them. Within another month, he was a widower and had buried his ailing wife in the local cemetery - without her golden hand. It had been so easy. A slow poison, administered daily to resemble a wasting disease. No one - not his wife, not the family doctor, not their neighbors - suspected murder. And the night after the funeral, he slept with the golden hand under his pillow. It was a dark night. Clouds covered the moon, and the wind was whistling down the chimney and rattling the shutters of the town house. He was deeply asleep when the door to his room slammed open with a loud bang and a wild wind whipped around the room, scattering papers and books and clothing and table coverings every which way. He sat up, startled by the sudden noise, and his pulse began to pound when he saw a greenish-white light bobbing slowly into the room. Before his eyes, the light slowly grew larger, taking on the shape of his dead wife. She was missing one arm. "Where is my golden hand?" she moaned, her dark eyes blazing with red fire. "Give me my golden hand!" He tried to speak, but his mouth was so dry with fear that he could only make soft gasping noises. The glowing phantom moved closer to him, her once-lovely face twisted into a hideous green mask. "You stole my life and you stole my hand. Give me back my golden hand!" the dead wife howled. The noise rose higher and higher, and the phantom pulsed with a strident green light that smote his eyes, making them water. He cowered back against his pillows, and the hard shape of the golden hand pressed against his back. And then he felt the golden hand twitch underneath him as the mangled green phantom that had been his wife swooped down upon him, pressing his face against the pillow in a suffocating green cloud. He tried to scream, but it was cut off suddenly by a terrible pressure against his throat, cutting off his breath. The world went black. The next morning, when the housemaid came into the room with her master's morning cup of tea, she found him lying dead on the floor, with the golden hand clutched around his throat.
 * [|termpaper.biz] ||





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