Obscure and Useless Government Services

[@brandonking1737]

Not really obscure or useless, but you can request a flag that has flown above the parliament buildings in Ottawa. Currently the waitlist is well over 100 years.

[@thatprogolfer]

New Hampshire, the state I’m from, does this same thing. They fly a different flag every day and save the flags to sell. My local Republican committee I help run actually got one from when our governor vetoed a bill many Republicans disliked. We then had him sign it and auction it off at a 4th of July event we hosted. Someone videoed it however and it hit the news that he “auctioned his veto.” This created a week of scandal for him but it’s fine because he is still one of America’s most popular governors.

[@TimeTennyo]

I signed up when it was 30 years. Apparently, the flags first go to special guests, then to people on the list. Last time I visited the parliament buildings, I asked about it and they no longer advertise or mention it at all. Some didn't even know what I was talking about.

[@myragroenewegen5426]

This is crazier than anything covered above. I demand that JJ have a hypothetical Parliament flag flown in 100 years or so.

[@Ma2rten]

How is that not obscure or useless?

[@brandonking1737]

@@Ma2rten I guess it is obscure since they don't advertise it, and it's pretty useless since you'll never get it in your lifetime

[@splitinfinitives]

In the 1990s, Britain had the Cones Hotline, where people could phone in to report improper deployment of traffic cones

[@Redrally]

We also have our own phone number for telling the time. When in Britain, dial 123

[@ThomasJM]

That sounds a bit like when TSN used to show WWE raw and they got repremand by the CRTC for showing the "improper use of hockey stick" all they had to do was pay a fine and read a statement on air around the program.

[@markussleonard127]

There is s John Major meme page for you cone needs by the way.

[@AwesomeJDO]

Oi mate! You goit a loincinse fo' those cones?!

[@lennongh1205]

Well also in the uk they have this thing called the nhs where people get free healthcare or something

[@orhirshfeld]

Actually, HAM radio saved my life!, really I am not joking. Even specifically HAM broadcasts from Canada. I was crossing the Atlantic ocean from New York to Europe on a small sailing yacht and for long-distance communication, we had only the HAM radio because the normal VHF or mobile phone has a much shorter distance and is already useless after you sail about 24 hours away from land. Also, satellite communication is pretty expensive and we didn't have the equipment. So this HAM radio has also a free protocol that allows getting maps of naval weather forecasts and we kept receiving it using a station in Halifax, Canada. One day I watched the forecast and saw a hurricane storm heading straight to us in a few days. We immediately changed course and put full power. The storm finally hit us pretty bad but we were far from its center and the damage to the boat was minimal and the happy ending is that we finally crossed safely the ocean and repaired the ship. So never underestimate HAM radio because one day it might save you life.

[@himesilva]

Were you aware that hurricanes were a possibility in that region at the time of year? Was it sort of a sudden development?

[@ifyouloveChristyouwillobeyhim]

Very cool. I think my Opa crossed the Atlantic on HAM radio in a rickety little plain when he came over. This was in the 1950s. The journey was perilous.

[@ariana9941]

wich hurricane was it

[@drvelocci]

I live there!!

[@sreekar5691]

Fellow HAM operater here, really interesting to hear your story 👍

[@chrisprobst6963]

The Heritage dept will be somewhat confused at the sudden influx of orders for Canadian promotional material in the next couple of days 😁

[@verl0000]

HAHAHAHAHAH so true lol

[@chrisprobst6963]

@@verl0000 I ordered mine , it was very easy

[@birkenstockresouler]

I'm ordering a temporary tattoo

[@sandrapark4438]

No fair! They won't deliver to addresses outside of Canada!

[@joydisorder3455]

i cant find the part of the website to order it can someone post the link

[@FrankJames]

I wish the US had a phone line with a terrifyingly dead voice on it 😪

[@lajya01]

You have the EAS bulletins coming from the National Weather Service. They sound pretty gloomy

[@Patsy_Parisi]

It also has shortwave stations in Hawaii and Colorado broadcasting the time.

[@belg4mit]

@@panjoshua6251 There are/ere many numbers, varied by phone company. Pacific Bell's was POP-CORN

[@Thomk121]

We do have a time phone number you can call. We used it all the time to reset our clocks after electric would cut out. Now days it's a bit unnecessary with cell phones, atomic clocks, and clocks with memory. I have a Sony clock that keeps time even when unplugged. It's not atomic so I have no clue how it works but it does.

[@SvensssonboiMapping]

call the white house

[@TailsDoll275]

We in Russia also have a time-telling hotline, and I occasionally use it if I want to know the exact time without using the Internet, so it is useful imo.

[@alexjenkins1079]

Same here in Britain, as far as I'm aware. That is if it hasn't been shut down yet

[@MTLYev]

Does it tell you the time for Moscow or any needed time zone of Russia?

[@Claro1993]

The Philippines also has one as well, but there is a website that operates as a widget dedicated to show the time.

[@TailsDoll275]

@@MTLYev Different numbers are used for different regions, where I live(Saint-Petersburg) 060 is used, for Moscow it's 100, for Irkutsk it's 707070, and so on.

[@JJMcCullough]

Gear you people have short phone numbers

[@ByronLewis]

Please have an indoor flag regulation special for 200k

[@리주민]

I want to hear more about the green beans

[@bug5654]

Only 2k to go...

[@candelorimoraglia]

It's time JJ!

[@areaciera51]

Just discovered your videos (from the States) and I’m digging them! I studied color science in college and thought this might be of interest. The CIELAB color system is used to describe the color of physical objects, hence the specifications on light source. The color of fabrics is dependent not only on the dye/pigment you apply to them, but also the fabric’s underlying color, texture, and shine, and under what conditions it’s viewed. So, that’s why digital color systems like RGB or CMYK aren’t very useful for physical objects, and the CIELAB system must be used to describe standard flag colors.

[@youreperfectstudio4789]

Yes I agree I do color matching professionally and the way the describe it in the law is totally reasonable IMHO. RGB or especially CMYK wouldn’t fully describe the color.

[@sznio]

@@youreperfectstudio4789 >RGB or especially CMYK wouldn’t fully describe the color. Why doesn't CMYK beat RGB? CMYK is used for color in print - I would expect it to perform a lot better than RGB, which is used for illuminated displays.

[@LpSamuelm]

@@sznio CMYK specifies the proportions of inks to use, as opposed to the color the finished object should be. For one, flags are dyed and not printed with a CMYK printer, so it wouldn't be accurate in selecting a dye - and even then, since the color depends on more than just the color of the dye itself (material, viewing conditions, etc.), any specification for only the dye color will be incomplete!

[@himesilva]

I find colour science super fascinating but I have no idea what kind of jobs are involved in that kind of thing, may I ask what you do?

[@corymcgrath5652]

So the Canadian flag has to adhere to a code written by the AMERICAN SOCIETY of TESTING MATERIALS.

[@inwalters]

Well, even though they may not want to acknowledge it, Canadians are Americans - North Americans

[@Frank4SouthMiami]

USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!

[@Nomenius1]

Damn Americans and their... Standards.

[@corymcgrath5652]

Hello guys, it was just something that caught me. Wondered whether or not a CSA could have been followed.

[@brandonsaunders2823]

Its an industrial standard issue that these follow. They aren't so much made for everyday joes trying to make a Canadian flag in their garage but industry attempting to duplicate and sell. Because American markets control a majority of consumer goods, many countries reference their standards for global markets. Its the same thing when you get into buildings codes and such. When you dig into materials in many of our codes the reference this standard which references that standard and so on and so forth. Its an industrial world so you might as well use the language that industry is used to.

[@citationneeded8181]

I think swimming pool lights and artificial heart valves are some of the best examples of things that definitely should be well regulated...

[@mauimaumau2710]

< *SARCASM ALERT* > < *SARCASM ALERT* > Because of course that's what needs regulating, none of this "drugs" nonsense. < *SARCASM ALERT* > < *SARCASM ALERT* >

[@godfreyofbouillon5634]

@@mauimaumau2710 While drugs do need regulating if something like a pool light was made unregulated and of poor quality it could very well cause great harm and death to people via electrocution. Plus something like a heart regulator should also be regulated to make sure such a importent and life saveing device does not fail and cause the death of a person relying on it.

[@tobyevans2474]

In California, Prop 65 warnings! California requires posted warnings that things may cause cancer or reproductive harm; It requires this if anything anywhere at the facility causes cancer or reproductive harm. Pretty much every starbucks has it, I think because of the cleaning products? Anyway, it ends up being ubiquitous and therefore completely ignored.

[@teh-maxh]

Prop 65 doesn't consider dose. Since roasted coffee beans contain a small amount of acrylamide (which can be carcinogenic in large doses), they have to warn about it.

[@wilmanman7783]

my friends always joke that “the state of California is known to the state of California to cause cancer.”

[@nothing-2-live-4]

i worked at a factory in Wisconsin that made plastic tubes for medical equipment and every box we packaged tubes in had a Prop 65 warning on it because (presumably) some of the boxes ended up in CA. also why do plastic tubes have a prop 65 warning on them? i assume it’s because if i were dumb enough to eat a plastic tube meant to go in a medical machine, that would be bad for me.

[@Random3716]

We get them in the rest of the States as well because it's easier for companies to assume that some of their product is going to end up in California so they put it on everything. This contributes a lot to popular stereotypes and jokes about California, particularly in Middle America.

[@The_Powerhouse_Of_The_Cell]

Person who works in optics and has had to do a lot of color science here: chromaticity coordinates are way better than RGB colors because it works regardless of luminance. It’s not just the government being obtuse, it’s a very useful description.

[@tfae]

Yeah, RGB colors are not nearly as "objective" as people think. The model of monitor, the brightness of the backlight, or just ambient lighting can completely change how an RGB color looks.

[@iamthinking2252_]

Huh, like a bunch of things in life, sometimes the supposedly unnecessary or convoluted detail actually is useful when getting in the thick of it

[@remboldt03]

The German Flag regulation says (translated): The Federal flag has 3 horizontal stripes with the colors black, red and gold

[@Claro1993]

The Philippines has PADC (the Philippine Aerospace Development Corporation) a state-owned aerospace company that for 46 years of its existence has not mass-produced any viable aircraft beyond prototypes.

[@NimbusTheCloud]

This guy: "shortwave radio is obsolete" Me a communications technician: "AcTuAlLy"

[@greatjakers4128]

Lol

[@hugoflores5806]

Well, it also applies to hams, radio pirates and SWL people

[@gun2334trx]

In Iceland there is both a law about the speed that the national anthem can be played at and a committee that approves names.

[@리주민]

America needs that and the style. We dont need a funky or Rosanne version of the star spangled banner

[@pavise6333]

@@리주민 Fergie's version is the last straw

[@andysorensen1737]

Fun fact: Sir Mix a Lot is a licensed ham radio operator.

[@robertwilloughby8050]

So is Stu Cook (Bassist with CCR and Southern Pacific) and Feargal Sharkey (Vocalist with The Undertones and solo work). (and they're friends on ham radio too)

[@moreause]

it's not that hard to get , and was more common 30 year ago on a fun note ..you can get your car licence plate with your ham radio call sign .... first time i asked for one thel lady at the licence plate looked at me funny ... they where not delivered by them ..what do you know

[@bleuberry9636]

moreause I have mine! As do my husband and both my parents... we’re all licensed operators and glad to be!

[@timtwoface]

Baby. Got. Ham.

[@sh-op1ok]

I have mine, so do my parents, it’s annoying and outdated

[@SigmaticGames]

I have to defend the standards board as being useful, it’s the whole reason ISO exist as well. You want to keep consistency for research and industry throughout a nation. Let’s say you’re running an experiment that involves a cup of tea, how do you make that tea to be replicated on repeat experiments? You reference a standard in the experiment! Many pieces of infrastructure are also referenced standards. Shipping containers are standardized to fit on any railway car, or boat or truck. Imagine if you ship a container and it doesn’t fit on the boat because you didn’t follow the standard size! There’s many scopes where standards are important in the STEM fields and it’s not really something built for average person to utilize. Just because you don’t get use from it, doesn’t mean it’s not useful! It can be redundant with ISO though

[@RejectedRecords1998]

No

[@KuyaBJLaurente]

As a physics graduate, I totally agree with you. Unfortunately, in my home country (Philippines), we lack such an effective department (yes, we do have such measurement standards department but it was massively neglected by our government). For our national standards measurement, we practically completely depend on other countries. Our standard time is based on atomic clocks located in Australia.

[@Acidlib]

Looks like someone watched the HAI video about ISO standards

[@JankyChris]

As a german, I am very proud of our DIN

[@aschmum]

We used to (still might) have a “time” phone number in the US. My mom used to make me call it to set clocks after power outages.

[@allenabel3471]

There used to be a 1-900 number from the Naval Observatory (don't know if that one is still active or not). That cost 50 cents a call. It would have been cheaper to call WWV in Colorado, or even WWVH in Hawaii.

[@aaanawaleh]

@Mason Wyberg Is that true! That's ridiculous. 😂😂. What would a hard-core atheist say?

[@bruhmoment10]

American clocks are connected to a grid? No wonder Home Alone kinda makes sense now

[@roman.ia.empire]

@@bruhmoment10 Well, electric clocks need electricity to work.

[@bruhmoment10]

@@roman.ia.empire just buy the ones running on batteries Jesus. Who even buys an electric clock comeon

[@XSpamDragonX]

Chromaticity is used for measuring the visual representation of colours. RGB or CMYK are standards used for displaying colours on current technology, not a timeless standard of colours.

[@ravenlord4]

Alternate title: "Your Tax Dollars at Work!"

[@MrSleepy677]

Better then Amtrak.

[@fuilgbtyhy]

Hahahaha is that a cells at work reference?

[@raghavgdt]

Parks and recreation reference. Game recognise game.

[@nicholaswoollhead6830]

Well they're at work for something good. Regulations and standards are absolutely invaluable for the functioning of modern society, and without regulatory authorities the modern world literally could not exist in any capacity. The time-telling is super useful for blind people who, but has recently been replaced by smart-phones in most cases, and maintaining short-wave radio is important because short-wave is more resillient to things such as terrorist-attacks or natural disasters which can easily disrupt phone signals or internet connections.

[@danielzhang2015]

I’ll be honest that Department of Heritage thing is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen, I wish we had that in Taiwan or the US

[@marksprings3493]

DPP! :D

[@danielzhang2015]

Mark Springs Tsai 2020! Wooo

[@PrairieCossack]

You can have ours, for free. Take the minister, too.

[@NathanInnes]

They also do a lot more then just ship out merch such as organizing Canada Day in Ottawa and many more festivals.

[@evilproductionstudios9659]

Not in the us, it will be pretty boring.

Sweden have the time telephone service as well, we call it "fröken ur" meaning "miss clock" because it's voiced by a lady. It has been around since 1916.

[@Vulcanwoman]

Fascinating. Although, it does raise an interesting question; What happens if the person who voices it is a man? Will the service change its name or will the name stick?

[@TurtleMarcus]

Yes, same in Norway, "Frøken ur" or "telefonuret" operated from 1932 to 2007.

[@ryan_n05]

That's kinda strange that the phrase is so different from the German phrase "Frau Uhr", considering that Swedish is a North Germanic language.

[@seneca983]

Same in Finland where the service is nicknamed "neiti aika" meaning "ms. time".

@@ryan_n05 Frau means Mrs, not Miss. In Swedish it would be "Fru ur".

[@MitchyD1000]

The Canucks were unable to determine the play in Tampa sadly

[@chasethesnakee]

why you gotta be mean to canadians

[@CiabanItReal]

@3:35 NOOOOOOO What do you mean we can save the excitement of Indoor Canadian Flag Regulations for another day.... you only post a video once a week bro! I can't wait that long!

[@Val.Kyrie.]

Ciaban K I was honestly going to thank him because I don’t think I could have handled indoor flag regulations so soon. I was still reeling from the excitement of the outdoor ones that I fear I’d become overwhelmed.

[@CiabanItReal]

@@Val.Kyrie. While I understand that fear, and it's valid, my problem is that since he only uploads once a week, having to wait an entire week for regulations regarding indoor flags is just unbearable.

[@davidroddini1512]

I have been sitting on the edge of my seat awaiting the video on the indoor flag regulations. Hopefully, he gives it more than the cursory review the outdoor regulations got. I’m talking a point by point, detailed explanation of the whole thing. It would be a nice change from his usual short videos. I mean 10:14?! Really?! The introduction should be at least 5:00!

[@kingoftape]

Time hotlines are a time-honored way to look busy at work when you’re really just reading Cosmo at your desk.

[@TrenchReynolds]

And here I was hoping we were going to get a video all about Trudeau's new beard.

[@oldmanmammoth5364]

Trench Reynolds quite glorious isn’t it?

[@TrenchReynolds]

@@oldmanmammoth5364 It makes him look like his own evil twin.

[@TallCrow1726]

I personally love it

[@michaelheeheejackson7255]

it is horrid

[@rgnzls6483]

He looks like Beto O’Rourke after he dropped out lmao

[@АртёмРодионов-ь4ь]

5:30 In Russia we've UVB-76 radio station. It's well known as mystery government radio that transmits weird buzzing and sometimes a voice. And someone even built a whole conspiracy theory, but as far as I know those voice messages it's just encrypted code for military staff.

[@frislander4299]

We have that time hotline in the UK - it's called the "Speaking Clock".

[@bobdole4694]

Wouldn't work. Before Australia's speaking clock was discontinued last year it was reached by a four digit special service phone number. Only works if you are using a landline or mobile phone on their phone system. Besides; international calling isn't that expensive anymore. It's often also blocked unless you have setup a calling package that covers it with the phone company.

[@TheSmart-CasualGamer]

Tim the Talking Clock.

[@vfsdm]

Something that I do while watching your videos JJ is compare your background to your latest video just like that 7 mistakes games, today I found a constitution...

[@johnys2417]

You can still hear the RCI broadcasts via shortwave in central europe through a small relay station in Germany every saturday at 9am and 11:30am UTC on 6005khz and every sunday at 4pm and 6pm UTC on 3985khz

[@damascus6478]

Your video brought back a large part of my teen years. I lived in New York City and was a shortwave listener. I listened to RCI all the time, it was one of the first stations I ever heard. I was a subscriber to the station and remember the first show I ever heard on shortwave. It was from RCI, and called The Royal Canadian Air Farce and it was very funny. Shortwave stations usually would broadcast a few notes of their theme music 5 minutes before the programs started. You played the first few notes for RCI which were the opening notes of the Canadian anthem, and I was back in the 1970s. It was a fun hobby and something that nobody really can enjoy anymore as if you wish to listen to any of these stations you can just get them online. But it was very exciting for me sitting in my bedroom in New York at 3 a.m. hearing through the static, This is Radio Australia. Or Radio China or Radio Moscow. It was very exciting to be international at a time when communication was very restricted. I still have the little Canadian flag and button that RCI sent me along with their schedule. I was on many, many mailing lists and even tried to take some language courses from Radio Netherlands and Radio Germany. I really do miss listening to the world when you are one of the few who are able to do it. I'm also sure that somewhere the FBI has a file on me as I used to write to the Soviet Union, communist China, and other countries that I'm sure my government wasn't too thrilled to have me writing to. As for the time signal telephone number, I would hear that from station WWV, the same voice, but this time from the US Bureau of Standards.

[@murrrr8288]

RGB and especially CMYK are relative color measurement systems. What CMYK looks like depends on printing process and paper. CIE on the other hand can give accurate measurements if you need to calibrate.

[@jimmytang5553]

Much like the Department of Canadian Heritage, the Australian Government gives away free Australian flags, recordings of the Australian anthem AND portraits of the Queen. Most Australian don't really knew/cared about this service until 2018 when a Vice article brought it to light. There was a sudden influx of request for portraits of the Queen, for a while there was a long wait list but thankfully the Australian Government have now restocked their inventory of Queen portraits and Australians can obtain one by writing to their local representative.

[@li5up6]

I got my Ham radio license when I was in highschool, around 2011. It's super neat stuff, but sadly I never had the money to get a real setup. Thankfully now it's very easy to get a Software Defined Radio. If you have a license, you are allowed to broadcast on many of the allocated bands, from shortwave on up to terahertz, frequencies. It's even possible to transmit video signals on some of them.

[@maxis2k]

My favorite redundant government service is how in the USA, there's a body who's job it is to regulate how government forms are written. Which has, you guessed it, their own oversight committee regulating them.

[@peteromalley6442]

There's the Department of Education, which sounds special and important, until you realize that it doesn't run any schools.

[@vrenak]

It's like the DAA in Yes, Minister...

[@imperatorcaesardivifiliusa2158]

Michael Corleone And then you realize that the Department of Education handles tens of billions of dollars each year for Pell Grants and for the student loan program and then you realize that the Department of Education has likely given many millions of Americans the opportunity to access higher education, thereby improving the lives of themselves, their families, and their communities, which is when you realize that the Department of Education’s still very important

[@paisleepunk]

@@imperatorcaesardivifiliusa2158 And you also realize it helped fund many of your favourite TV programs as a kid.

[@pr0ntab]

OMB. They enforce the PRA (Paperwork Reduction Act) to make sure that no form that you have to fill out exceeds a certain amount of time, or that two different government entities don't make different forms that ask the same questions. They have a lot of other responsibilities but this is the one that most people know about.

[@apillow8724]

IMO, the chromaticity thing *not* being in RGB/CMYK is a good thing. There's no way to guarantee consistency between different devices using these color formats, which means it's even harder to compare these colors on an electronic device with those in the real world. Color is hard.

[@slicedtoad]

I'm pretty sure that's been solved. Can't you get a device that measures your display's color accuracy? Color is hard because our eyes interpret it very strangely, but the actual physical phenomena of different wavelengths reflecting off of objects is very testable. You just have to map RGB or CMYK onto wavelengths. Well, it's probably a little more complicated... but it has to be a solved problem since it's kind of important for graphic designers that need to make real world prints that match their digital designs.

[@youreperfectstudio4789]

@@slicedtoad I color match artwork professionally. It’s not a solvable problem. You can use $100,000 tools to read and match colors and they will still be off to some people. CMYK is not a single specification, and RGB depends on a color space. Something like R:0, G:255, B:0 looks totally different if you are using sRGB, aRGB, ProPhoto, or a different color space. RGB numbers are useless for color matching without knowing the color space. When dealing with physical products, color also looks different at different observed angles. I wish it were an easy solved problem that just involves some algorithms to convert between color types but when that happens it’s a huge oversimplification that introduces errors. It is something that you can take steps and use tools to get as close as possible - that’s why you have complex descriptions like in this video. But it’s never going to be 100% perfect.

[@YusufNasihi]

One of the obtuse federal government documents that might actually affect one's life is the document detailing submissions of bids for government contracts. They even specify what size and weight paper you need to use.

[@JJMcCullough]

Yusuf Nasihi Canada?

[@YusufNasihi]

@@JJMcCullough Yes

[@NorbertNipken]

In addition to the "weatheroffice" the federal government maintains a vast network of gauges that monitor river flow across the country, these can be accessed online at the "wateroffice" where real-time flow data is available. This is obviously useful for predicting where flooding may occur and managing water levels on dams, but it's also very handy for whitewater paddlers who want to know what rivers are "in play". It's not that obscure but most people aren't aware of its existence. I use it and consider it to be one of the few truely visible benefits I am getting for my federal tax money. :)

[@JohnSmith-ey6zy]

JJ can you do a video about popular video games from each country, like for example the Koreans with Starcraft or the Russians with Counter-Strike?

[@CheapSkateGamer96]

Fortnite is still huge in Mexico.

[@senecanero3874]

Or Gothic in Germany

[@wihamaki]

World of Tanks players are mostly Russian and you can tell by how much bias their tanks get over competition.

[@nachocheese2823]

Koreans with any competitive esports game

[@johnmillholland6550]

Thank You J.J. for making the radio “Radio” from “The Brave Little Toaster”

[@benstapleton5319]

An interesting Gov. 'Service' here in the US (its more just a particular law) is that taxes on bullet sales often go towards funding National Park programs. The idea was mostly hunters and outdoorsy folk use National Parks, and those same kinds of people buy guns, so they will buy ammo, so that's how you get the Bullet Tax. I actually think its a neat little tax we have here in the states, assuming the money is allocated properly, as its a way to tax individuals that use a particular service so that they fund the service they use.

[@TN-wv6ok]

I actually live really close to the RCI transmitters at 9:28 . RCI has always been of interest to me because of it. They are re-developing the site. Great Video !!

[@NoEntertainment]

Reminds me of your 2015-2016 videos where you talk about obscure stuff, good

[@SomeRandoo]

No. Didn’t expect to see you here

[@NoEntertainment]

some rando, hello! people like you were mentioned in the video quite a bit

[@SomeRandoo]

No. wut

[@NoEntertainment]

8:13

[@theylied1776]

We had a similar service where I lived in the South. You'd call the number and it would give you the time, local weather, and school closings.

[@visagrunt]

Most of these things were absolutely essential services before widespread access to broadband internet. Canada has a lot of territory; much of it not covered by cell signals or land line services--let along broadband. Even as late as 2012 there were small communities whose only internet connection was via satellite (at prohibitive cost). There are plenty of people out in remote areas at any given time (indigenous people exercising harvesting rights, resource industry scientists looking for mineral resources, etc.) and sometimes the only reliable connections are satellite and shortwave, if you're North of 60 there might not even be a lot of satellites above the horizon. Canada is big. Really big. And outside that long, skinny strip of dense population near the US border, sometimes these old fashioned means of communication are still the best bandwidth there is.

[@donutdude1934]

brb, gonna order some Canadian Heritage swag.

[@arushkaintura7965]

In India the government has a channel on the radio called akashwani and depending on where you live news songs and current affair quizzes will be broadcasted in your language.

[@BAIGAMING]

I'm in Canada and I used to get free physical portraits of the Queen and her family every few years, but apparently since 2019 they don't do it anymore, but they do offer free images online - still it felt nice getting something physical. I have tons of those rolled-up posters unopened, maybe my legacy will sell it for some money, I've got some George VI coins too 😁

[@DavidLaFerney]

The thing about the internet is that it's incredibly fragile compared to short wave. It would be quite difficult for hackers (or anyone) to disable communication by short wave. Disasters - both natural and man-made routinely take out cell and internet service. Also short wave can be used pretty much anywhere - believe it or not cell and internet are not universally available even in the best of times. You should talk to someone who knows about it instead of automatically taking the rather lazy "I have no use for it therefore it is useless" position. Sorry 'bout that - I rather like your channel. This also goes for time signals - if ships at sea for example lost GPS signal they could still navigate the old fashioned ways - if they had a very accurate time value.

[@dooterscoots2901]

For 99% of people it will be useless so for most of us yes that is correct you may happen or may not happen to be that one percent of people to whom it matters but for the rest of us it doesn't.

[@ScrubAgenda]

@@dooterscoots2901 As he stated, it wont be useless in the event of a natural disaster. There's actually a licensing system in Canada, along with Amateur Radio Operator license plates, so that in the event of a major crisis they can find people who can still run comms. Chances are, you (like most people) also don't care too much about infosec in your day to day life, but you will if your data gets leaked and you start to see charges on your credit card.

[@flouro4782]

Although it may not be useless, it's certainly obscure for the average person.

[@tgg1217]

@@dooterscoots2901 ok buddy when a 9.5 earthquake hits Toronto I will be all over that short wave radio but for now living in 2020 I'm going to use the internet

[@LiveFreeOrDieDH]

There's a reason global communication reverted to Shortwave in the movie "Independence Day".

[@stefanoliver9529]

The first regulation for cellphones on airplanes was with the FCC and was to prevent rapid changing of cell phones between cell towers which was feared to overwhelm the network.

[@praveenb9048]

When I was a kid in India, there was a phone number where you could listen to a randomly selected piece from archival recordings of Gandhi's voice.

[@flyingninja1234]

That time radio broadcast would make for an interesting torture device.

[@mikegillert]

So fun story, my wireless microphones at the church I ran production had their radio frequency sold to cell companies. So they lost their legal status. Somehow. Which sounds pretty ridiculous that was allowed to happen to under 20 year old microphones

[@zongzoogly4549]

Fun fact: depending on the range of that final existing radio station you mentioned at the end, it could easily cost hundreds of dollars an hour in electricity to run. I learned this from Reviewbrah who runs his own shortwave show and he said it cost him about $150/hr in electricity.

[@evertonmatheus7084]

We in Brazil have TV Câmara and TV Senado, two government TV channels focused mostly on broadcasting the discussions being held on the Chamber of Deputies/Senate live.

[@omgitsadog2520]

We have that here in the US (sort of) it’s called CSPAN, but they only televise the house or senate if there is a hearing or a vote. Other than that they’ll just sit some random political stuff

[@professordogwood8985]

Breaker breaker to JJ; I just found out the Royal Canadian Mint offers a “coin recycling” program, whereby you submit your old coins for cash and they re-mint them. Over.

[@walterfielding9079]

The United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN). The Board was created first by Executive Order by President Benjamin Harrison in 1890, and approved later in legislation by Congress and President Grover Cleveland, in 1893. The purpose of this board is to maintain names of geographic places and to approve new ones, or approve naming the unnamed. Any individual, company, organization, or group can request a name change to any geographical location or feature. The BGN has to approve it and if they do, the Department of the Interior (which the BGN reports to) will carry out making signs and ordering maps to name or change the name of said place. You can go to their website right now and request a name change (Note: It's only Geographical Locations and certain places (The Grand Canyon) have their names protected by legislation.)

[@taylortheyummy]

Oh my god I just ordered random Canadian memorabilia I AM SO EXCITED 😂

[@jpflaming3]

I couldn't find the link to order anything.

[@taylortheyummy]

jpflaming3 This is the link I used app.pch.gc.ca/application/formulaires-forms/promo/1.app?lang=en They ship within Canada, it was really easy to order everything 😊

[@sandrapark4438]

No fair! They won't deliver to addresses outside of Canada!

[@2712animefreak]

In Croatia we also have an "exact time" service, phone number 18095. There is also a "wake-up service" 18100 which calls you back when you want them to, and "general information" 18981 that you can call for general questions.

[@JJMcCullough]

2712animefreak what kind of questions?

[@2712animefreak]

@@JJMcCullough Any questions. It's basically Google for people that don't want to or don't know how to use the internet. According to a news article from 2017, they still received as many as 5000 calls daily, mostly by older people. The article said that the call center was staffed by about 40 people, about half of whom are part-time students. The line still works, but it's not free, it costs 6.5 HRK/min (1.27 CAD/min) and is operated by Hrvatski Telekom, a former public company that is now privatised with the majority shareholder being Deutsche Telekom, a similarly privatised German company (the Croatian Government still owns some stock, though). Here are some of the questions asked that were reported in the article: "Which flowers bloom in June, July or August that are red?" "How do I leave my flat to my granddaughters without my daughter finding out?" "What is the name of the Bosnian actor that acted in Croatia, but lives in Vienna?" "How much time does it take for a snail to cover 200 m of distance?"

[@davids6898]

Speaking of differing radio bands I saw an interesting documentary on Netflix that it was actually the actress Hedy Lamarr who discovered this during WWII and without which we would not have cell phones today.

[@orospakr]

My dad would call the NRC time signal number to set clocks back in the day.

[@jblico]

I live in Montreal and I called that number, I got a middle aged lady, the second I heard that voice my ass got scared.

[@joylox]

I used to pass by that NRC building every day and had no idea about that number. Also, one time in first year physics, the prof made a radio in the classroom and rick rolled us. And also, if you have walkie talkies that are the old kind before you could change the channel on them, you can actually pick up baby monitors if you put them end to end to amplify the signal, and now I want to know what frequency that was. I did it with some friends when I was like 10 and we were kind of spooked by all the stuff you could hear just by aiming them different directions.

[@kaickf.r.goncalves2846]

Brazil has a time telling hotline as well! It also tells the day of the year, day of the week and national holidays too!

[@Hwyadylaw]

The thing about the colour specification is that while RGB is appropriate for RGB displays, and CMYK for printing, they don't cover nearly the whole spectrum of visible light (at least not standard gamuts). The models used here do cover the whole spectrum, which makes them suitable for general purpose applications.

[@kattyyoung817]

I just went and ordered everything i could from the department of heritage. Cant wait for my free canadian flag posters and flag etiquette book!

[@markbrown9458]

The first SOGI reminds me of how we did the same thing using/spelling POPCORN (767-2676) on the phone's numbers to find out the exact time of day. Fun in the '80s...

[@jonathannerz1696]

5:55 Hey, it’s Radio from “Brave Little Toaster.”

[@1000eau]

In France, we have the GEIPAN (Groupe d'Études et d'Information sur les Phénomènes Aérospatiaux inexpliqués / Group of Studies and Information about inexplicated Aerospatial Phenomenons) which is the only governement service in the world entirely dedicated to... Searching and studying... UFOs... Yes, the french governement is actively studying UFOs since 1977...

[@ahmedabdellatif98]

the phone number you dial to know what time it is seems to be pretty popular around the world. I remember there was one in Kuwait. It's kind of useful if you are absolutely desperate and it hardly costs anything

[@davidbelgrave1971]

In the 1980s and 90s the New Zealand government went to war on what they called "quangos", usually small elected bodies for a specific purpose, like rabbit control boards and harbour management boards. These things all got disestablished and then suddenly rabbits got out of control and harbours started silting up. Eventually local and central government took on these roles. Just because something is obscure doesn't mean it's useless.

[@belg4mit]

Quasi-NGO (Non-Governmental Organization), although it sounds like these were more like Quasi-Governmental organizations.

[@AnCoilean]

Ireland has just removed Eirtel (our state broadcaster’s teletext system)

[@sentientarugula2884]

Nah they kept it alive just switched it over to digital

[@inwalters]

Back in the 1970"s my dad had a shortwave radio and I remember we used to snicker at the ridiculous stories on Radio Moscow - English language service.

[@seanfyodorovich5230]

Basically it was like a crime blotter for the entire United States.... "Today in Miami a black man was shot in the Hialeah district at a discount liquor store during a robbery... "

[@andrewmaddox2889]

You are my favorite Canadian.

[@seneca983]

If in addition to obscure services obscure taxes count as well, Finland used to have a dog tax until a couple of years ago. Each municipality could decide to collect a tax of up to 50 € per dog per year but recently there were only two municipalities (Helsinki and Tampere) that had a dog tax. It was abolished entirely in 2018. Before that, it was estimated that only about 15%-25% of the people who should have paid the tax actually paid it.

[@quentingilanian8045]

The most interesting thing the Canadian Government does to me is subsidize cartoons via the Film and Tax Credit

[@turingmachine4617]

The hours I spent as a kid (c. 1970s) listening to Radio Canada International, (and Radio Quito, Radio Havana, Radio Moscow, Radio Netherlands, . . . ) I was such a geek! Thanks for reminding me, and thanks, Canada, for funding something that trained me to think internationally. I guess it did contribute to my worldview and my life today.

[@tomney4460]

8:21 He is listening to Lincolnshire Poacher, a station used by British spies in the U.K. administered UN buffer zone between Cyprus and Northern Cyprus

[@EvilParagon4]

That's neat and all, but question: Why is this known, and how can he listen to that from Canada? Is Short Wave that long distance?

[@tomney4460]

Evil Paragon 4 yes, very long

[@geoffmooregm]

You quickly mentioned the CGSB when talking about the flag colours. This body is very vital to the infrastructure we have today. I am a GCSB certified inspector. There are many types of inspectors that the CGSB certifies but basically we go around and check everything from welds of bridges to the amount of corrosion inside a pipe line or maybe check the rails that a train rides on.

[@blakell35472]

Please do a video unboxing that stuff, I’m curious to see what kind of packaging and information comes with them.

[@yeetdoggo07]

my dreams were crushed when i read that the canadian heritage stuff can only be shipped to canada i thought i was gonna get a free canadian flag but no luck

[@timtwoface]

7:32 - It's a pity that the Canucks clearly didn't dictate the play that night in Tampa. 9-2? Ugh....

[@micahmachiela3288]

Now I know where all of those posters in my grade school classrooms came from, saw most of them at 4:52

[@terraflops]

Thanks JJ, you made my day. It's fun knowing my Canadian gov't does weird and dumb stuff

[@annayosh]

As I recently learned, the actual reason that cellphones used to be banned on airplanes did not have to do with interference of the airplane, but that the ground stations got into problems with strong signals (because they were not interrupted by anything) moving in and out of reach within seconds or even a fraction of a second (because planes fly so fast)

[@LiveFreeOrDieDH]

At one time in the US, many local entities (telephone companies, for example) provided call-in hotlines that would give you the local time. Most have since stopped. However, at least one Federal agency, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), still provides call-in service (as well as radio broadcasts) to announce the US official time. The time they provide is actually Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) which you would need to convert to your local time zone, and is read every minute, with little tick sounds every second in-between. The call-in numbers for these broadcasts [phone] for WWV (Colorado), and [phone] for WWVH (Hawaii). (If outside the US or Canada, be sure to add country code "1" before the rest of the number).

[@ChrisKeddy]

I believe the reason for turning off cellphones is from the fact different countries have different bands for devices. I'm not sure if that has changed to become a standard internationally yet.

[@mathematicalcowboy3166]

6:01 That radio is from The Brave Little Toaster. Thought I recognized it!

[@tomfrazier1103]

"Ham" radio was an obscure thing that some people of my Grandparents (G.I.gen.) were into. Mr. Swank, a neighbor of theirs did it, and random houses had 1920s style antennae sprouting from them. Around here, the Northwest Hawaiian Islands probably generate SOGIs. Bush II or Obama designated them some sort of fishery preserve or something. Necker & Nihoa once had Polynesian inhabitants, and Midway had stuff going on. These are obscure Hawaiian Islands. I had fun studying Hawaiian Geology, so could go on. Thanks for your fun channel. Don't sweat age. I'm pushing 50 with a toothpick. Aloha, Tom.

[@cesare3016]

In Petropolis, a Brazilian city, people have to pay 2,5% of their property tax to maintain the old royal family. Even though Brazil is a republic and the monarchy isn't recognized anymore.

[@리주민]

Maybe the descendant is the lord high mayor of the city

[@cesare3016]

@@리주민 There's no such a thing. It's just a 100 year old stupid law passed by monarchists that never changed

[@telotawa]

3:03 the reason they don't use RGB or CMYK is because they aren't ideal for the use, RGB only goes up to however bright your monitor gets, and is generally used for things that emit their own light, CMYK is just however saturated your printer ink is see TaranVH's many videos about color for more info

[@Kriosaivak]

“The Department of Awesome Wonders of Awesome Awesomeness.” Ebnic.

[@evilproductionstudios9659]

Ebnic?

[@Kriosaivak]

evil leafy Production studios Yeah. Honestly, it’s mainly just an inside joke with me and my friends. Probably not the most amusing to anyone else. :)

[@vinicius_teodoro]

In Brazil, the federal government broadcasts a daily news programme on the radio called The Voice of Brazil and every single station is obliged by law to broadcast it simultaneously at 7PM. The same goes for political ads during election time - every radio and network TV station is obliged by law to broadcast the same political ads (which are also produced using indirect federal funding) for nearly 1 whole hour every day.

[@command_unit7792]

You know from my experience living in an Eastern European countries i have to say these things change very frequently....

[@daquariussmith9772]

I was hoping when you said "Can you GUESS what it broadcast" that it would be a French Canadian government show/ Quebec show

[@bgriffiths1840]

I gotta stop watching JJ videos. I fall more in love every time haha. Who else can make government outdoor flag regulations hilarious? Haha. My heart.

[@canadianpsycho1867]

CHU actually has 3 frequencies. My mother says it sounds like a truck backing up.

[@roman.ia.empire]

oh my gosh. I guess the government expects some person in the middle of Yukon or Nunavut that's cut off from phone lines to use the shortwave time station. but, ?? still seems odd

[@patricelebrasseur5649]

It's also used for navigation and localization since shortwave are really robust systems