Magic Statistics

Statistics Canada yesterday released the latest estimates of radio listening by Canadians, based on a survey taken during last fall's CBC lockout.  (It's a regular annual survey, so the timing was purely fortuitous coincidental.)

As one would expect, the numbers showed a big drop in CBC radio audience.

The results show that the CBC captured a share of only 8.8% of the total audience during this period after holding steady at around 11% during the past four years.

The decline pushed the public broadcaster from third place in overall format ranking, where it had been for three straight years, to fifth place. It was leapfrogged by country music and talk radio.

The province with the most avid radio listeners was Prince Edward Island, where the average person listens to radio for 21.2 hours each week.  Lowest of the provinces was British Columbia with an average of 17.2 hours.  (The three northern territories were not included in the survey.)

Breakdowns by radio programming format were especially interesting (to me, anyways).  I was gobsmacked to see that the province with the highest proportion of radio listening time devoted to country music was PEI, with a whopping 47.6%.  That's away ahead of stereotypically cowboy-country provinces Saskatchewan (37.5%) and Alberta (25.4%), which finished second and third.

Newfoundland and Labrador residents topped the nation in listening to talk radio with 22.1% of listening time, followed by Manitoba (15.7%) and Quebec (12.7%).

For Canada as a whole, the most popular radio formats are Adult Contemporary (24.0%), Oldies/Rock (14.9%), Talk (10.2%), Country (10.1%), and CBC (8.8%).

A breakdown by education level of respondents shows that university graduates are far more likely than other Canadians to listen to CBC.  22.4% of their listening time was devoted to CBC, compared to 14.3% of the next-highest group, those who attended but did not graduate university.  Does that indicate that CBC radio is an elitist phenomenon?  (Just asking.)

Obviously, the results have been skewed to an unknown extent by the CBC labour dispute during the survey period.  Results from the next survey, to be conducted in September and October 2006, will indicate whether CBC has regained its former audience.

Brief definitions of the radio formats are posted here (pdf).  (I found them imprecise and not always helpful, but I rarely listen to radio, so what do I know?)

Detailed analysis tables can be downloaded here (Excel).

Source:

Statistics Canada, 2006.  "Radio listening." The Daily, 21 July.  Statistics Canada catalogue no. 11-001-XIE.
http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/060721/d060721b.htm  (accessed 21 July 2006).

This summer the Canadian navy will transport at least 400 armed forces personnel to Lancaster Sound, the east entrance to the Northwest Passage.  The navy was last there some 30 years ago.  The operation is scheduled for 12-24 August and will involve a frigate, two smaller vessels, and six aircraft.

The ships will also sail up Baffin's east coast and set up a series of observation posts along Lancaster Sound to observe shipping, which has been increasing in recent years as retreating ice makes Arctic waters more navigable. The ships will also patrol Lancaster Sound and conduct fishing surveillance.
. . .
The patrol will end with stops in communities along Baffin Island's east coast to allow residents and members of the Forces to mix. The idea is for the two groups to get to know each other a bit as the military extends its reach in the Arctic, [navy Lieut. David] Connelly said.

Another objective of the mission is to visit and restore gravesites of two RCMP officers who died while serving at a remote, now-abandoned outpost in the late 1920s.

"We maintain historical gravesites and there are many throughout the North," said RCMP spokeswoman Jennifer Hayward. "Once a member, always a member."
. . .
This patrol will visit Dundas Harbour on the southeast coast of Devon Island, where the RCMP maintained a small detachment in 1924-33 and 1945-51 - an expression of Canadian Arctic sovereignty from an earlier time.
. . .
"We'll be bringing in a new white fence," said Connelly. "We'll be repairing and beautifying the graves and holding a modest ceremony."

Navy patrols have been travelling farther north in recent years.  This is expected to continue as the Conservative government has pledged a deep-water port and other military improvements with a view to reinforcing Canada’s sovereignty in the far North.

This map was obtained using Google Earth.  Devon Island, the largest uninhabited island on Earth, is located on the north side of Lancaster Sound.

Previous related posts:

• Competition begins for promised Arctic deep-sea port
• Defence Minister prefers not to wait for a threat
• If we wait for an “immediate” threat, it’ll be too late

On the Canadian side of the Yukon-Alaska boundary, aboriginal peoples have campaigned tirelessly against opening the Alaska Wildlife National Refuge to oil drilling.  Aboriginals on the Alaskan side, however, are not of one mind on the issue.

Alaska Inupiat are opposed to offshore oil drilling, preferring that developers turn their attention to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The Inupiat in the northern coastal community of Barrow are worried offshore development could threaten their traditional hunt for bowhead whales, seals and walrus, says Eugene Brower, president of the Barrow Whaling Captains' Association.
. . .
However, the Gwich'in of Alaska, the Yukon and the Northwest Territories are opposed to drilling in the refuge because it's the calving grounds of the migrating Porcupine caribou herd, which they rely on for food.

A member of the Inupiat tribal government in Barrow fears that offshore development will happen soon regardless.

The Inupiat people of Alaska have joined efforts backing oil development in ANWR.  In March 2005, Inupiat representatives stood with Alaska Senators Ted Stevens and Lisa Murkowski and others and spoke publicly in support of drilling on the Arctic Coastal Plain.  One of the Inupiat is a resident of Kaktovik, the only settlement lying within ANWR.

St John of Damascus was born about a generation after the armies of Islam had conquered the Middle East.  He was an important financial officer in the court of the caliph and chief representative of the Christians of Damascus.  Later in his life, he wrote The Fount of Wisdom, part of which became influential in Western medieval theology.  In the section entitled “On Heresies”, St John critiques Islam (although he does not call it that; apparently it was not yet known by that name).

Kevin P. Edgecomb at biblicalia has posted a translation of St John’s discussion of Islam.  The “superstition of the Ishmaelites”, as St John calls it, was, in his view, an Arian-influenced Christian heresy and not even a genuine religion.  His criticism is devastating.  St John tells how he repeatedly confounded and silenced his opponents by pointing out contradictions in their prophet’s book.  Several times he refers to the prophet’s book as “worthy of laughter” and particular passages within it as “foolish sayings”.

Here’s the first paragraph from Mr Edgcombe’s translation:

And there is also the up until now strong and people-deceiving superstition of the Ishmaelites, being the forerunner of Antichrist. And it is born from Ishmael, who was born from Hagar to Abraham, from which they are called Hagarenes and Ishmaelites. And they call them Saracens, as from Σαρρας κενοι (those empty of Sarah), because of what was said by Hagar to the angel: “Sarah has sent me away empty.” So then, these were idolaters and reverenced the morning star and Aphrodite, who they indeed named Khabar in their own language, which means great. Therefore, until the time of Heraclius, they were plainly idolaters. From that time and until now came up among them a false prophet called Mamed, who, having encountered the Old and New Testament, as it seems, having conversed with an Arian monk, he put together his own heresy. And under the pretext of seeming pious, attracting (?) people, he reported that a book was sent down to him from heaven by God. Therefore some of the compositions written by him in a book, worthy of laughter, which he handed down to them as an object of reverence.

St John also discussed a sura of the Qur’an which apparently no longer exists.

Read the whole thing.

Thanks to two good friends who sent me the posting by e-mail.

Previous related posts:

• A prayer of St John of Damascus
• Is the Koran the Muslim Bible?