Viral video shows Canadian mill shrinking due to optical illusion
Dubbed the 'Incredible Shrinking Mill,' the structure appears to get smaller the closer one approaches it, as demonstrated in popular social media videos.
The phenomenon is caused by the Ponzo illusion, where converging lines, such as road edges, trees, and houses, trick the brain into perceiving objects differently sized.
The Port Colborne grain terminal, which served the Great Lakes region for 125 years, has been vacant since the end of 2024.
Local residents have been invited to submit suggestions for the future use of the historic structure.
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The Independent
4 hours ago
- The Independent
Why Canada isn't the trouble-free alternative to America you think it is
Canada is having a moment this summer with bookings by European holidaymakers reportedly surging by 32 per cent – and almost all of this increase comes at the expense of the United States. Travellers are avoiding the US because of its newly hostile environment, a steady stream of visitors reporting arbitrary, despotic US border officials, and even, this past week, a possible requirement for visitors to the US to pay a deposit to enter its borders. Canadians call their country's soaring popularity the Trump Bump. Canada is often seen as an idealistic antidote to this American era: a safe, welcoming destination with spectacular scenery, no xenophobia, no guns, universal friendliness and politeness, a sensible government, and no thorny visa or ESTA requirements. All of this is true, as my partner and I, as well as others, discovered last month – apart from the visa bit. Because what most people don't know – and flight booking sites and airlines mostly hide – is that Canada has a rigid Electronic Travel Authorisation (eTA) regime. And that if you don't have an eTA, which is a visa in all but name, your airline will turn you away at the airport, no exceptions. The Canadian eTA has existed since 2016, but wasn't enforced strongly at the start. The eTA is often issued online in a couple of minutes, much like the Australian version, which became the first in 1996. The Canadian immigration department says eTAs can take up to 72 hours to be issued. But for no given reason and with no way of speeding up your application, it can, in reality, take several days. Facts we weren't aware of when, in May, we booked a well-priced flight on Expedia to Calgary, flying Delta Air Lines via Minneapolis. It was only when we checked in the maximum 24 hours before the flight, that Delta warned us we needed to get the £4 eTA. We applied. My partner received hers within two minutes. Mine still hadn't come the next morning when we left for Heathrow. But having flown into Canada in 2018 without an eTA and driven in just last year without one, I assumed it was not mission-critical. However, Delta refused to let me board. They can be fined €9,000 for every passenger they carry not correctly documented to their destination, they explained – I didn't even have the option to leave the flight at Minneapolis (I have a US visa) and make my own way for the final leg. We went home despondent and with no option but to buy two new tickets. The cheap ones we had were non-transferable. My eTA arrived after 35 hours from the Canadian immigration department, with no reason given for the delay. I spoke with Expedia, who said visas and eTAs are not their responsibility, and that their small print warns that travellers to check for visa requirements themselves. It does indeed, if you can find it in the small print – but Expedia link you to a visa shop that charges £180 per person for the eTA – triple the rate of even other opportunistic commercial visa sites and 46 times the £3.93 charged by the official Canadian government eTA site. Since we fell foul of the eTA trap, we have, without trying hard, found two families merely from our small group of friends affected by it. The ex- Times journalist Michael Crozier, from north London, got caught out having also not been warned by his airline. He and his wife applied for the eTA at Spokane International Airport in the US. They were flying to Vancouver. Hers came in 20 minutes, but his took five hours – so they missed the flight. 'We booked the flight three months in advance, and it really wouldn't have been hard for the airline to warn people clearly that some will need this visa,' Crozier told me. 'We had no idea about it. The onus should be on the airlines and booking sites. What reason could they have for not flagging it up?' Simon Hewitt, from Hampton, almost lost his family holiday because he knew nothing about the eTA requirement. The Hewitts were booked to fly to Calgary earlier this week. He bought the tickets weeks ahead, but got no warning, again, from Expedia or from the airline, that an eTA was needed. Simon is the marketing manager for a large German company, well-travelled, and famously ultra-organised. After our disaster, I had warned him to apply. The family still had two weeks to get the documentation. His wife's and teenage kids' eTAs came within minutes, but his took 10 days. As the days went by, Hewitt tried to contact the Canadian immigration department. 'It was like a labyrinth,' he says. When I asked Expedia, Air Canada and British Airways why they don't simply flag up clearly that your flight to Canada cannot go ahead if you don't have an eTA, all predictably and wordily took the 'it's in the small print' approach. Expedia – who defended recommending a company that charges £180 per person to obtain the visa on your behalf as an 'optional, additional service' – showed that deep within its terms and conditions, they do link to the official Canadian government application site. I asked the government body, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, if they were having difficulties due to the influx of applications for eTAs this year. 'Most applicants get their eTA approval (via email) within minutes,' they replied. 'However, some applications need more time to be processed. For example, some applicants must submit official documents that take several days to obtain from the appropriate authorities in their country. To avoid travel delays, applicants should get their eTA before booking their flight to Canada.' I asked an experienced Canadian immigration barrister, Will Tao of Heron Law Offices near Vancouver, if he was hearing stories of chaos from within the immigration service. 'The system has always been mostly automated,' Tao says, 'I think they must have expanded the number of rules and flags, to triage more humans in the interventions and take into account their power of cancellation, which was expanded in January. But only the department can possibly confirm this.' 'They used to advertise eTAs as taking no more than 7 minutes. Go figure!' the lawyer adds. The strangest thing about the Canadian eTA, meanwhile, is that while it is supposedly to maintain their borders, it doesn't apply to land and sea entries to the country. The rationale, Tao says, is in the original proposal for the eTA, which says, 'It is not anticipated that travellers will switch their mode of transport to avoid the $7 fee.' Right. Regardless, a lesson. And one to remember: for all travellers in the coming year, the eTA issue is going to expand far beyond Canada. Australia and New Zealand have an eTA, but their systems are easy, efficient and quick. A new eTA system in Britain is up and running, but by all accounts, is running smoothly. From next year, British travellers will require an eTA to go into the EU. Canada has a relatively efficient bureaucracy. With the likes of many EU countries, the same can't be said.
Telegraph
20 hours ago
- Telegraph
Hate queuing for the American border on holiday? Soon, you might not have to
Nearly four decades on, a regional operation which amounts to just one terminal and two million passengers per year provides flights to four major American destinations (New York JFK, Newark, Chicago, Boston), with passengers able to have their passports checked prior to take-off. Nor is Shannon a lone example. In total, the USA offers 15 pre-clearance border points. The Irish capital Dublin is also part of the club. So is Bermuda. There are two such facilities in the Caribbean region (Aruba; Nassau in the Bahamas), and nine in Canada (including Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa and Toronto). The United Arab Emirates joined the list in 2014, when a pre-clearance point opened at Zayed International, in Abu Dhabi. Limited developments That inauguration was the most recent. In May 2015, the US Department of Homeland Security announced that a further 10 international airports were being considered for the border pre-clearance scheme, including Heathrow and Manchester, as well as Oslo, Amsterdam, Madrid, Brussels, Istanbul, and Narita International in Tokyo. However, these proposals were unveiled during the second Obama presidency. There have been no major developments or updates under the three subsequent White House administrations. The new short-cuts to Texas and Atlanta are not part of this pre-clearance system. They mainly apply to customs checks, coming under the umbrella of a pilot programme called 'One Stop Security'. And for now, they are limited to specific airlines and named routes. The Dallas-Fort Worth short-cut applies to travellers flying with American Airlines from Heathrow (Flight AA51), and is open to passengers who are connecting to a further flight in Texas. The main convenience is that clearing customs in London means they will not have to collect their bags when they land, and check them in for a second time before flying onwards – which is currently the standard requirement for all arrivals in the USA. They can simply continue to their connecting aircraft, knowing their luggage will follow. The Atlanta short-cut is even more restricted in scope. It is only applicable to passengers who are travelling from Heathrow to Hartsfield–Jackson International with Delta Air Lines (Flight DL33). Furthermore, it is only open to travellers who are registered with America's Global Entry system – or those who have the 'Mobile Passport Control' app on their phones. The latter is only available to US citizens and legal permanent residents. In other words, those dreaming of an end to the seemingly interminable wait at JFK or LAX will have to… wait a little longer. But with important eyes keeping a close watch on the effectiveness of the Dallas and Atlanta routes, and American Airlines speaking of its 'plans to explore' a widening of the programme to further cities, there may yet be a simplification of the stop-start queuing that has come to define a touch-down in America.
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Daily Mail
Inside Justin Trudeau's divorce makeover as he swaps ties for tank tops and is seen on 'date' with Katy Perry
He's swapped tailored suits for tight tees, Parliament Hill for Swiss peaks - and a buttoned-up marriage for adrenaline-fueled bonding trips with his sons and a cozy dinner with Katy Perry. Nearly a year after splitting from wife Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, the former Canadian Prime Minister has debuted a full-blown divorce glow-up: trading suits for sleeveless tees, diplomatic meetings for mountaineering, and family portraits for alpine selfies. In his latest Instagram post that Trudeau, 53, shared a day after he was seen out with the popstar, the loving dad posed atop a snowy slope in Zermatt, Switzerland with 17-year-old son Xavier, ice axes in hand and mountaineering rope tied between them. 'More melted cheese than anyone should safely eat,' he joked, capturing the bro-y, dad-on-the-loose energy that's defined his recent feed. And before that he was seen on a sun-drenched Canadian road trip with his youngest son Hadrien, 9, that included rock climbing, hiking, and even a kiss from a sea lion. One July snap showed the trio at a climbing gym, Trudeau in a black tank top, looking more Coachella than campaign trail. Fans have been spamming his latest Instagram post with cheeky Katy Perry GIFs - one of her seductively holding a watermelon slice, another of her in a candy-colored wig licking an ice cream cone. Trudeau and Perry were spotted having dinner in Montreal on Monday, leaning in close at Le Violon restaurant before heading to Taverne Atlantic for terrace drinks. Trudeau ditches the suit for a sleeveless tank as he poses with sons Xavier and Hadrien at a climbing gym during their Canadian road trip Trudeau and youngest son Hadrien, 9, hike and climb on a cross-British Columbia adventure Perry, 40, is currently on tour in Canada after her recent split from fiancé Orlando Bloom - and her sighting with Trudeau has sent social media into overdrive with people speculating they are dating. 'Both reminiscing their peaks in 2015,' one user joked. 'Did not have that one on my celebrity hookup bingo card,' wrote another. It's been a rocky stretch for the pop star: a flop album (143), backlash over her cringy Blue Origin space flight, and a very public breakup from Bloom, who was last seen solo at Jeff Bezos' wedding in Venice. Perry, who was in Australia at the time of the wedding, was later seen breaking down in tears on stage. Meanwhile, Trudeau has been navigating his own exit from power. After eight years as Prime Minister, he stepped down in January amid plummeting popularity, a crumbling Liberal party, and a trade crisis with Trump 2.0. His replacement, Mike Carney, was sworn in this March. Representatives for both Trudeau and Perry have declined to comment on the dating rumors. Since stepping down, Justin Trudeau has embraced dad life and has been spending quality time with his kids Justin Trudeau announced his resignation as leader of the Liberal Party - and his intent to step down as Prime Minister - on January 6, 2025 Katy Perry was giving 'flirty' cues to a 'flattered' Justin Trudeau on the pair's unlikely 'date' in Canada this week - just a short time after her split from Orlando Bloom A source has told the Daily Mail that those close to the singer do not believe their rendezvous was anything serious. They explained that Perry 'usually wears her heart on her sleeve' so if a new romance was brewing, her pals would have heard about it. 'As of right now, Katy and Justin are treating their get together as just that, a get together,' our insider said. 'She hasn't told anyone it was anything more, and she usually wears her heart on her sleeve, so if something were happening, she'd let her close friends know. But right now it is nothing more than friendship.' A second insider reiterated that Perry and Trudeau's meetup was 'just a hangout' and not something romantic... yet. 'They met at an event and they have had some good conversations,' they said. 'They text each other, it seems to be very friendly and nothing more at the moment. However this hasn't stopped social media going into meltdown over the duo's meeting. One person posted: 'That's the most random couple I can imagine getting together in 2025.' Trudeau has been showing off a more casual look in recent weeks as he posts photos to Instagram showing him with his sons Perry confirmed her separation from actor fiancé Orlando Bloom in June, while Trudeau and wife Sophie announced they were parting ways after 18-years of marriage in 2023 Another said: 'Imagine the stimulating conversation these two geniuses must be having.' While a third added: 'You could have given me a million guesses as to who his new girlfriend was and it would never have been Katy Perry lol.' Another quipped about Perry's panned Blue Origin mission: 'Good for her. After all she's been through, the trials and tribulations of being an astronaut while trying to be a single mom, she deserves to be happy.' And another concluded: 'They are both insufferable, might just work out for them.'
