Literally. Well, not its orbit (apologies). Anyway, Canadian Space Agency Astronaut Chris Hadfield, Commander of the International Space Station, was part of the big reveal. For those of you who lost track, yes, Canada did just unveil a new style of currency in space.

“Canadians can be very proud of their new polymer bank notes,” said Finance Minister Flaherty. “With today’s unveiling of the final two notes in the series, one can see not only the unique story that each of the five denominations tells, but the unifying theme that underlies them all – the profound courage, determination, and ingenuity of our nation and its people.”

Here’s the Bank of Canada’s rationale for the switch to polymer:

Almost half a billion of these new notes are now in circulation. Safer, cheaper, greener, the polymer notes have already proven their worth. Safer, because all the notes have the same state-of-the-art security features, using holography, transparency and other elements that make them difficult to counterfeit but easy for everyone, especially those behind the counter, to verify.

Cheaper, because the durable polymer material lasts at least 2.5 times longer than paper-based notes. This means that fewer notes will need to be printed, making the series more economical. Greener because, over the life of the series, fewer notes produced also means fewer notes transported. And when they do need to be replaced, the notes will be recycled in Canada.

The new $5 bill features images of Canadarm2 and Dextre – robots used to build and keep the ISS. It also features a portrait of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Prime Minister of Canada from 1896 to 1911.

You can watch the currency reveal from space below:

Canada already has $20, $50, and $100 polymer notes in circulation, and the Bank of Canada says that they are the most secure bank note that they’ve ever issued.

“I try to inspire young Canadians to aim high. This new $5 bill should do the same,” Commander Hadfield said. “By giving prominence to Canadian achievements in space, this bank note reminds us that not even the sky is the limit.”

According to a report from Chicago’s ABC 7, 51-year-old Maria Carreiro of Toronto had originally thought she had won only $40,000. When her daughter informed her that she had, in fact, won $40,000,000 she “ran down the street like a crazy woman.”

Though $40,000 is quite a windfall, $40 million is a life-changing amount of money. While accepting her gigantic cardboard check this week, Carreiro danced a jig for the cameras and began singing thanks to her god. The woman related to onlookers that she will be going to Hawaii, as she has never gotten a honeymoon in her 30 years of marriage.

Carreiro reportedly played the same lottery numbers, based on her children’s birthdays, for 20 years. On this occasion, though, she had taken a “quik-pick” ticket.

Amazon announced that it has launched Beauty and Health & Personal Care stores on Amazon.ca. Now Canadian shoppers can choose from over 80,000 health and beauty products, and have them delivered straight to their door. Since this is Amazon, most of the products are eligible for free two-day shipping with Amazon Prime.

“With the addition of beauty, health and personal care products, we’re excited to offer customers the convenience of ordering everyday essentials right to their home,” said Steve Oliver, country manager for Amazon.ca. “Customers can take advantage of Free Two-Day Shipping with Amazon Prime and with the Amazon Mobile App, search, discover and buy from wherever they are.”

A wide selection of international brands, as well as domestic Canadian brands, are available from the new stores:

With this kind of selection, Canadians can finally join their American counterparts in never having to leave the house again.

To celebrate this milestone, Redbox is offering specific rental deals to Canadians, which can be found on Redbox Canada’s Facebook page until April 11th.

“We’re delighted that Canadians have chosen Redbox as their destination for easy, affordable entertainment a million times over in just 10 months,” said Ron Cihocki, country manager, Redbox Canada. “To thank Canada for helping us reach our one millionth rental, we invite customers to enjoy great rental offers by visiting our Facebook page over the coming weeks.”

For Redbox, Canada is a market in its infancy. In the U.S., Redbox sees 62 million rentals a month. As of the end of 2012, Redbox had rented out over 2.5 billions discs to U.S. customers.

Of course, Redbox kiosks are everywhere in the U.S., with over 34,000 locations nationwide. 68% of the U.S. population lives within a 5-minute drive of a Redbox kiosks. By comparison, there’s less than a thousand Redbox kiosks in Canada – so 1 million rentals is a big deal.

Redbox kiosks in Canada, like Redbox kiosks in the U.S., have just recently received a boost from the brand new Redbox Instant service.

Redbox Instant, the company’s streaming service with partner Verizon, just launched out of beta and became open to the public earlier this month. The service costs $8 a month for unlimited streaming of over 4,500 movies (no TV shows yet), and also contains 4 free DVD rentals built into the monthly price.

Google announced today that Chromebooks are now available for purchase in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland and The Netherlands. Consumers can go ahead and pick up a new Chromebook from Google itself or a licensed reseller today.

The Chromebooks available for purchase today include those from Acer, HP and Samsung. It’s not immediately clear if the $1,300 Chromebook Pixel will be available in these countries as well.

As for schools and businesses, Google expects that those organizations may have some questions. For schools, Google in Education will be hosting a number of Hangouts next week to address any questions or concerns schools may have with the Chromebooks for Education program:

Most of today’s news may be focused on Europe, Oceania and our neighbor up north, but Google has a small announcement for the U.S. Chromebook market as well. Starting today, Chromebooks will be available in 1,000 more Best Buy stores around the country for those who prefer to still buy computers at retail stores.

For the time being, Google Fiber is a strictly Kansas City affair. The company has said it would like to expand, but it probably wont do anything until Google Fiber is fully available to both Kansas Cities. That being said, the company is expanding its Google Fiber operations and that can only be a good thing.

The Financial Post reports that Google is currently looking for three people in the Kitchener, Ontario area to work on Google Fiber projects. The jobs currently available are a product manager, a test engineer and a software engineer. All three positions will be responsible for helping Google build mobile apps to complement its current Google Fiber service.

The product manager is the most interesting job posting because it definitely alludes to Google Fiber launching in more locations in the future. Here’s the responsibilities listed in the posting:

So what’s the big deal here? Every product manager has those responsibilities. What does any of this have to do with Google Fiber expansion? In all honesty, it could just mean that Google is looking for people in Canada to help develop mobile apps for its current Google Fiber expansion in Kansas City.

We could, however, look into this deeper, and suggest that Google may be keeping an eye on the Canadian market as a potential location for expansion. ISPs in the country are generally disliked for using abusive data caps that make the use of services like Netflix all but impossible. Much like any city in the U.S., Canadians would welcome the advent of Google Fiber with open arms.

Once again, it’s worth pointing out that Google may not have any plans for Canada at all. The company is hiring employees for Google Fiber projects in New York, and there’s little chance that such a large city would get Google Fiber anytime soon. So it’s best to keep our expectations in check, and just be envious of our neighbors in Kansas City who are getting blindingly fast Internet.

“We are excited to further enhance the customer shopping experience in Canada,” said Sam Hall, VP of Mobile Shopping for Amazon. “Customers in Canada can now use the Amazon Mobile App to conveniently shop, browse and buy from anywhere, all while accessing popular features such as Prime, 1-Click ordering, customer reviews and more, right from their mobile devices.”

Here’s a snippet from the announcement:

To make on-the-go shopping a seamless experience, customers can sign up for a new account using the Amazon Mobile App or they can use their existing Amazon.ca username and password to access the same account they view on the Web. Customers using the Amazon Mobile App can access many of the same features as on the Web, including their cart, Wish Lists, payments, 1-Click settings, Prime membership and more, and can shop the full selection of products available on Amazon.ca, including electronics, baby, kitchen, books, movies, music, watches, sporting goods, tools and more.

With the simple click of a button on their mobile devices, customers can have millions of products delivered to their door while benefitting from Free Super Saver Shipping on orders of eligible products over $25 or by taking advantage of Free Two-Day Shipping with Amazon Prime. The Amazon Mobile App for tablets gives users an immersive shopping experience with larger, richer images and easy access to search filters to quickly find what they are looking for.

The app lets users choose between English and French-language shopping.

It’s assuring to hear Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird authoritatively declare that “Canada will never become a safe haven for zombies, ever.”

Watch the awesome House of Commons moment below:

The Globe and Mail reports that Canada’s Justice Minister Rob Nicholson announced this week that Bill C-30 is officially dead. In the announcement, Nicholson said the government abandoned the bill after listening “to the concerns of Canadians.” He also said that any attempts to modernize the country’s criminal code will not contain “warrantless mandatory disclosure of basic subscriber information or the the requirement for telecommunications service providers to build intercept capability within their systems.”

The bad parts of the bill may be dead, but Canada is preserving one part of it for law enforcement. The police will be allowed to make use of warrantless wiretaps in the case of an emergency, but there are a few important caveats included in the legislation.

For one, police must alert citizens they were subject to a wiretap after an investigation has been closed. The government is also required to issue annual reports on how wiretaps are used. Finally, warrantless wiretaps are restricted to only certain officials for certain crimes.

It’s certainly different from how wiretapping works in the U.S. FISA allows the government to wiretap anyone without a warrant, and without ever notifying them. Some members of Congress have worked towards making it more transparent, but proponents argue that it must be kept secret.

Canada’s killing of C-30 comes on the heels of an expected cybersecurity executive order that may very well curtail more privacy on the Internet for Americans. Maybe it’s time American lawmakers looked north for a little inspiration for how Internet surveillance should really work – limited and transparent.

Last March, the Canadian government announced that it would withdraw the penny from circulation, and now the time has come. Canada’s CBC Radio has a piece asking if Canadians will miss the coin. Andrew Nichols writes:

There was a time when a penny was not something people would cast aside or ignore. You could buy a loaf of bread with it …and back around the time it was first minted in Canada in 1876 it was not uncommon that a-day’s-work for an unskilled labourer would bring in just one-hundred pennies.

Nowadays a loaf of bread can easily cost two-hundred pennies and more. Over the last few years several studies have recommended pulling the Canadian penny …something other countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Finland to name just a few have already done. And since it cost the Canadian Mint 1.6 cents to make one cent …that’s $11-million dollars per year …many knew the penny’s days were numbered.

CTV News reports that in the right hands, the penny still holds value. Some are trying to preserve the coins through jewelry and accessories. On top of that, there will always be coin collectors who will no doubt gladly keep at least a few on hand.

Canadian retailers are reportedly not obligated to discontinue using the penny, so there should still be plenty of pennies used in transactions for the time being.