Canadian governor-general's coat of arms incorporates binary code

From the National Post. How come our governor-general doesn't get a coat of arms too? The new Governor-General touched off a firestorm of controversy with his new coat of arms, which contained a pattern of binary numbers that some figured could be a coded message. OK, maybe not a firestorm. More like a brush fire. Not even that, really. A nice little fire, like in a chimenea. Anyway, Rideau Hall has since confirmed that David Johnston is not signalling aliens or cyborg overlords or giving the Prime Minister a thumbs-up for prorogation-on-demand. They are just some 1s and 0s. But it got us to thinking: Just what is with these G-G coats of arms, anyway? Scott Stinson reviews some of them. DAVID JOHNSTON The numbers are kind of a subtle way to evoke the digital age, actually. It beats sticking an iPhone or a BlackBerry on there. The books and well-used candle, which suggest hard study, are a nice touch. Not crazy about the unicorns, though. They should appear on merry-go-rounds and My Little Pony books, and that’s about it. The armorial bearings of several other Canadian viceroy's here.