Or, at least, the Federal GSA tried to :eek: . Suffice it to say that der Governator vas not amused :mad: . I particularly like the excuse [del]pulled out of their a[/del] offered in the last article by some unidentified source, that they were worried that “this may have allowed some children to access porn”.
Attention to IT managers in the DC area: watch out for resumé soon to be making the rounds, emphasizing experience in “quick decision-making and implementation of proactive solutions to protect the public”.
I am guess the phone call went something like this:
Cal IT We are having trouble with our ca.gov domain
GSA: Ah yeah, we pulled the plug on that domain
Cal IT: ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FUCKING MIND? If you don’t fix it, our governor will come to DC and kick your ass.
That’s nothing; the United States routinely wipes Canada off the face of maps. (It’s entertaining for us to watch U.S. weatherpeople showing the map, and they might as well label the Canadian part of the continental map as “Here There Be Dragyns.” )
That’s not the point. The point is, everybody who watches television knows that Canadian fronts are Canada’s chief export to the U.S. How can you show a map of a Canadian front being shipped into the U.S. without showing Canada on the map? The U.S. isn’t on Canadian weather maps because once we’ve accepted delivery of the front, nobody gives a crap what happens to it – it’s their responsibility only to make sure it leaves Canada safely; after that it’s our responsibility.
The article cited in the OP is great material for a Farrelly Brothers movie!
TV weather reports tend to be focused on the local area anyway, so that’s not surprising. There might be a brief segment for viewers traveling out of town, but, the U.S. being what it is, probably 95% of the people flying out of town on any given day are flying to other places in the U.S. So they don’t mention Canada, or Mexico either–except in the case of Mexico, they might mention it if they think an approaching hurricane there will affect the weather somewhere in the U.S.
OTOH I’ve never seen a print map of the U.S. that didn’t also show whatever major cities and states/provices there was room for, in southern Canada and northern Mexico.
Watch national morning shows giving weather for the entire US of A, and they still do their best to hide Canada. Usually colouring it the same colour as the ocean
Given the geographic cluelessness of the US audience, if the weather TV show did include Canada & Mexico in a continental weather map, the US folks would be unable to find their own country on the map.
Maybe people would find the US if if the three countries were each a distinct map color, but that’d make it hard for the weather folks to overlay the fronts or rainy area forecast or whatever. There are only so many distinct colors to go around.
Hence maps that make it appear the US is an island.
