Month: January 2017

“The West Montrose Covered BridgeThis structure, the only…













“The West Montrose Covered Bridge

This structure, the only remaining covered bridge in Ontario, was designed by John Bear in 1880, on the authority of Woolwich Township Council, to replace an earlier bridge over the Grand River.  Built a year later by John and his brother, Benjamin, the 198-foot bridge was covered to protect the wooden flooring and frame against the elements.  Known locally as the “Kissing Bridge” it later came under the jurisdiction of Waterloo County. In 1937 the province assumed responsibility for the Guelph-Elmira Road, including the West Montrose Bridge, and its floor and sub-structure were subsequently rebuilt and reinforced.”

The Ontario Archaeological and Historic Sties Board recognized the West Montrose Covered Bridge as a historic site in 1960. In 1975, the bridge was designated as a heritage site.

Surely the most famous bridge in Waterloo Region is the “Kissing…



Surely the most famous bridge in Waterloo Region is the “Kissing Bridge” in West Montrose.  

It’s claim to fame is that it’s the last covered bridge in Ontario.  It made a lot of sense to cover a bridge this long in the days of horse and buggy travel. Like the Conestogo Bridge, this was only ever wide enough to accommodate a single car at a time.  

The highway bridge built as a car alternative bridge is quite a bit out of the way for the large Old Order Mennonite population who still get around by horse and buggy in Waterloo Region (particularly Woolwich Township).  I’m guessing that’s what saved this bridge long enough to become a landmark. This photo is from spring 2015.  

B.C. religious leaders call on Canada to act against U.S. immigration ban

B.C. religious leaders call on Canada to act against U.S. immigration ban:

allthecanadianpolitics:

Religious leaders of various faiths are urging the federal government to let those stuck in U.S. airports into Canada, following President Donald Trump’s immigration ban.

Members of the group, Concerned Clergy for Refugees, held a news conference at Jack Poole Plaza in Vancouver on Sunday, calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to act.

“These are refugees that are fleeing war-torn countries, these are immigrants holding valid U.S. visas for travel, these are our brothers and sisters,” Rabbi Dan Moskovitz of Temple Sholom in Vancouver told reporters.

Trump issued an executive order Friday that bans entry into the U.S. by citizens and dual-citizens from the Muslim-majourity countries of Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen for the next 90 days.

In a letter signed by 75 faith leaders, the group is asking Canada to extent temporary resident visas or permits to those who hold American visas, have passed American security clearance, and who are stranded at American ports of entry.

Continue Reading.

lauragaederusswurm: There are so many photos of Laura and her…



lauragaederusswurm:

There are so many photos of Laura and her family and friends on or around a single car bridge that I always assumed would be long gone.  

But it seems Mom’s bridge is still there where Glasgow Street crosses the Conestogo River in her home town, Conestogo, Ontario . 

Doing a little online research I discover the bridge:

“…is among the oldest metal truss bridges remaining in Canada. Constructed in 1886 by the Hamilton Bridge Company, which at the time was known as the Hamilton Bridge and Tool Company…”

— Conestogo Bridge, HistoricBridges.org

We were driving in North Waterloo when my husband pointed out a little side road he told me led to a bridge that would scare the daylights out of me (an acrophobe) in Conestoga.  I was immediately all ears: he had to be talking about the bridge where so many of my Mom’s young photos were taken. I’d just assumed a single car bridge would be long gone by now, but it’s not.

Head of NSA’s hacker squad explains how to armor networks against the likes of him #1yrago

mostlysignssomeportents:

Rob Joyce runs the NSA’s Tailored Access Operations group, the spies who figure out how to hack systems, publishing a spook’s version of the Skymall catalog, filled with software and hardware that other spies can order for use.

TAO’s existence was only revealed in 2013 when leaked documents confirmed its existence. Joyce gave a presentation yesterday at the Enigma conference, a new security conference in San Francisco, explaining how TAO operates, and advising the attendees on how to prevent state-level actors from infiltrating and exploiting their networks and IT systems.

One revelation was that TAO is very patient: they will monitor adversaries’ systems as a matter of course, waiting for an opportunity – such as when a system malfunctions and the vendor asks the administrators to temporarily turn off password protection for a few moments.

Another favored mode of access is devices shared with workers’ children – the agency uses games on tablets that are brought between home and the office as a vector to penetrate the office networks. Joyce singled out Steam games as a favored vector for penetration.

Joyce did not talk about traffic injection, a tactic revealed in a separate Snowden leak: the agency and its Five Eyes allies have infiltrated fiber backbones, and are able to interrupt connections between sensitive systems and the public Internet and inject attack-code in those sessions.

https://boingboing.net/2016/01/28/head-of-nsas-hacker-squad-ex.html