News roundup, 31 Aug 2023

- Ukraine is now saying that they have developed long range weapons. Possibly this is how they managed to hit targets well inside Russia.

- A leader of the Proud Boys has been sentenced to 17 years in prison for his role in the Capitol riot. Meanwhile Trump has pleaded not guilty in the Georgia case.

- MPI is backing away from the plan to issue licenses without a road test.

- The Louis Riel School Division is holding their next board meeting online, to avoid being harassed by brownshirts.

- Both BC and the Northwest Territories are extending their states of emergency due to ongoing wildfires.

- Want to make your yard more eco-friendly? Hope you don't live in Saskatoon.

- A witness of the murder of a tourist in Mexico has himself been killed. Sure you want to take that tropical vacation this year?

- Mask mandates are coming back in some places in the US as COVID-19 cases are on the rise again.

- A truck carrying 5 million bees spilled its load on a street in Burlington.

News roundup, 30 Aug 2023

- Yet another public sector strike is looming. One would expect (and hope) that the citizens of Manitoba outside the Tory base would punish the government for this; we'll know more in just over a month. They aren't looking too good on the environmental front either (surprise surprise). Meanwhile, as regards the MPI strike, the corporation is trying to minimize the coming backlog of driver's tests by allowing those who have completed a certified driver training course to get their license (provisionally) without taking a road test. I daresay that doesn't sound like a good idea.

- Ukraine appears to have again struck targets deep in Russian territory. The thing is, it's hard to know how Russia will handle this. Anatol Lieven seems concerned about the possible consequences of defeating a country whose population might be unwilling to accept defeat. The implication Lieven raises is that this would destabilize Russia and potentially put its large nuclear arsenal in the hands of someone more reckless than Putin. See also these recently mentioned articles. The sad thing is, Ukraine might well be thrown under the bus by the West, not out of malice but out of fear of a worse consequence. Just another awful choice that policymakers have to make in these times.

- Many younger environmentalists are less opposed to nuclear energy than in the past. Now the thing is, if you're talking about existing nuclear power plants, I agree entirely. Maybe once you've shut down every single coal, oil, and natural gas plant in the entire grid you can think about phasing out nuclear power, but right now, doing away with existing nuclear plants means burning a lot more fossil fuels in the short run, which is exactly the opposite of what we should be doing. That said, building new nuclear plants is more problematic, but the main reason for this is not safety, or even the waste (though that is also very much a consideration) but the time taken to build them. It takes a decade or more to build a new nuclear plant, and the amount of solar and wind capacity you could add to the grid in that time would greatly outweigh the nuclear plant, at a lower cost.

- Hurricane Idalia has hit Florida and cut across to South Carolina (though having been downgraded to a tropical storm by the latter point).

- Danielle Smith thinks that the federal environment minister criticizing an oil company constitutes "utter contempt" for Alberta as a whole. Bit of a stretch, and moreover even if it were true, contempt for an electorate that just reelected Danielle Smith's government would not be unjustified.

- The federal NDP hopes to take advantage of their leverage over the Liberals over the remainder of this minority parliament. The trouble is, in order to exercise that leverage, they'll have to be prepared to risk a Tory government, and the Liberals know that. We'll have to see.

- Now I would totally agree that having a telecom employee relieve himself on your property would be undesirable. One could quite justifiably be pissed off with having your property pissed on. At first blush, suing for $5M seems like overkill, but it's freaking Rogers, so I wish this guy luck. To have a bit "too much" money taken off them for once would be a nice reversal.

- In the States, a majority of dog owners are now suspicious of rabies vaccines. I can't see this ending well.

- China's consumption of gasoline has reportedly peaked. If true this is very good news indeed. Also good news is that Denmark is seriously considering taxing beef for its disproportionate impact on the environment.

- Australia's new government has admitted in a court settlement that the pricing of government bonds was deceptive due to failure to factor in climate risk.

News roundup, 29 Aug 2023

- Premier Stefanson's former chief of staff incurred thousands of dollars in traffic fines while behind the wheel of a government vehicle. Although, to be fair, at least that's one way to get the province to provide funding to municipalities.

- A 73-year-old man has been charged with aggravated assault and other offenses after allegedly attacking another man with bear spray and a small chainsaw. No word yet on the motive.

- Kenneth Law has now been hit with 12 more charges following further investigations in the UK over suicides that allegedly occurred with his assistance.

- Global Affairs Canada has issued a travel advisory for the US, warning LGBTQ travellers that they could face persecution in some states. Perhaps they should also be issuing similar warnings for black people.

- The US military wants to equip robot dogs with rifles. Can't see anything going wrong there...

- COVID-19 seems to be on a bit of a resurgence, and nobody seems to know what measures to take.

- The Trump-stacked Supreme Court of the US has forced the government to withdraw some protections for wetlands.

- The wildfire in Greece, which has killed at least 20 people so far, is now the largest wildfire recorded in the EU.

- An Algerian journalist and a Canadian-Algerian researcher have been jailed for "publishing sensitive state information" and "receiving funds from foreign powers for the purposes of undermining state security".

- A shire (equivalent to an RM in Manitoba or a township in Ontario) in Western Australia is considering banning motor vehicles from their beaches, because the kind of arseholes who drive motor vehicles can't seem to stick to the part of the beach where they're allowed. Add them to the list of people giving freedom a bad name.

News roundup, 28 Aug 2023

- Tropical Storm Idalia is expected to reach hurricane force by the time it hits Florida.

- The MAGA crowd is not ashamed of their hero becoming the first former president to have his mug shot taken. Quite the contrary.

- The expansion of Greater London's ultra-low emission zone to include the more suburban boroughs has unleashed populist fury among the suburbanites.

- In the EU, the firewalls between the moderate right and the far right are weakening. This is ungood.

- More travel chaos, this time in the UK as the result of a failure in the ATC network. It's having a spillover effect in Ireland as well.

- Here's an optimistic take on the implications of Prigozhin's death for the war in Ukraine.

- MPI workers are now officially on strike. Hopefully this one will be settled more quickly than the MLCC strike.

- The Manitoba NDP is vowing to reopen the emergency rooms that the Tories closed. Hopefully this can be accomplished.

- Rich people get pissed on the rare occasions when the legal system holds them to the same standards as poor people.

- The  fascist pigs family values people are organizing to take over school boards in Alberta. Supposedly for the protection of the children, although what these people studiously ignore is that when children actually do get groomed or abused, it's often their own people who are doing it.

- The accused in the stabbing attack at the University of Waterloo has had his charges upgraded to attempted murder.

- When you get busted for stealing a package of chips, and the news story explaining who you are does so by referring to a TV show that hasn't been running for over a decade, that might be a sign that your star has faded.

News roundup, 27 Aug 2023

- Some states are moving to try to keep Trump off the ballot next year based on the 14th Amendment, which says that a public official is not eligible to assume public office if they "engaged in insurrection or rebellion against" the United States, or had "given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof". This could get interesting.

- The war in Ukraine continues apace. Unfortunately, neither Russia nor Ukraine is a signatory to the treaty banning cluster bombs. Neither is the US, who's selling them to Ukraine. Meanwhile, Russia is confirming the death of Prigozhin in that "accident" the other day.

- Speaking of that war, an interesting article by ABC global affairs editor John Lyons suggests, as Gwynne Dyer did last year, that the US is deliberately holding back on some military aid to Ukraine, out of fear that they could win outright and thus drive Russia to do something irreversible. If true, I can't blame the Americans for it, but it's unfortunate for Ukraine.

- The MLCC strike is officially over; workers ratified a new 4 year contract and the stores are to reopen tomorrow. At MPI, on the other hand, things are just getting started.

- The federal government used to be heavily involved in housing, until successive governments (Conservative as well as Liberal) got out of it as part of the neocon/neoliberal bandwagon that swept much of the world in the 1980s and 90s. Seems like a good time to get back in.

- Another day, another mass shooting in the US, this one apparently racially motivated.

- US federal authorities are investigating discrepancies between how around 5000 pilots reported their health conditions to the FAA compared with their reports to Veterans' Affairs. This does not inspire confidence.

- Unfounded rumours are being circulated in Vancouver Island alleging that the increasing numbers of homeless people on the island are being bused in from elsewhere (where depends on which city or town you're hearing the rumour in). Now it is true that some years ago Saskatchewan was buying one-way bus tickets to Vancouver for residentially challenged folks (and in the States, San Francisco has often been the destination) but there's no evidence for the current claims. One can't help but think that the folks on the Island can't imagine homelessness being a homegrown problem, it must be from the big cities elsewhere.

News roundup, 26 Aug 2023

A bit more sparse than usual; been a busy day.

- More evacuations in the Northwest Territories due to wildfires.

- Dan Lett asks why the Tories would pick fights with thousands of civil servants just over a month before the election. His explanation is that they figure they need to motivate their base. Time will tell what effect this has on the election.

- Modern cars have sufficiently complex data recorders that they can often be used to determine if, say, someone who claims to have been carjacked is telling the truth.

- And speaking of modern cars, it seems that autonomous vehicles have an easier time recognizing light-skinned pedestrians as people. They also seem to be vulnerable to guerilla action.

- The Tyee's Crawford Killian has an interesting proposal for how higher education should be funded in the future - factor in the externalities of the careers that programs prepare their students for.

- An article published in a major scientific journal has been retracted because an investigation determined that its claims were "not supported by available evidence or data provided by the authors". Pretty straightforward, but since the article is about climate change you can be assured that certain types of people will scream "but sen-ser-ship!!! Waah! Hulk smash!!!!"

- A church fire in Winnipeg is being investigated as arson. Seems someone lit fires two nights in a row, and found success with the second.

News roundup, 25 Aug 2023

- A storm did substantial damage in a few places in Winnipeg and surrounding areas (not here though). One farmer in the Selkirk area lost his entire canola crop to hail.

- Voting has begun on the tentative agreement between the MLCC and MGEU. Meanwhile, MPI workers are still on course to strike on Monday.

- New Flyer is ramping up their production again, thanks to increased demand for electric buses.

- A developer in Hamilton who bought a property in the Greenbelt a month before plans to open up the Greenbelt for development denies having received inside information (well they would, wouldn't they).

- Dr. Theresa Tam is saying that people who want a COVID-19 booster should wait for the updated boosters to be available in the fall. German authorities are sending a different message.

- Trudeau is becoming a liability for his party. Some of the dislike for him is justified, some isn't; but he and the party should take the hint if they don't want to risk Poilievre becoming PM.

- Rightwing nutcase protesters have driven firefighters out of the Shuswap area. No doubt they'll then scream about being abandoned by the authorities when their properties burn, but don't expect consistency from that lot. Then again, some people are blaming outside agitators rather than locals.

- In Maui, the number of people unaccounted for is down to 388. The confirmed death toll currently stands at 115.

- Thanks to monoculture, the next pandemic could very well affect crops rather than people. This could, of course, still be deadly to a lot of people, especially in the developing world.

- If the world's biggest corporations were made to pay the full costs of their emissions, it would represent about 44% of their profits according to one study.

- Still no clarity on what happened to Prigozhin's jet.

- Sarah Palin is predicting civil war over the Trump prosecution. It's possible, of course, that she's right; it's also possible that this is exactly what she wants.

- The Canadian accused of selling poisons to suicidal people is now being blamed for 88 deaths in the UK alone.

- Want to buy an old Boeing 727? There's one for sale in Abbotsford.

- Some people are using AI to generate professional-looking headshots.

- In Germany, they're working to expand geothermal energy, unlike in Alberta where they would secretly rather follow the example of an earlier German government.

News roundup, 24 Aug 2023

- Some of the evacuation orders in BC have been lifted.

- A tentative deal has been reached between striking MLCC workers and the corporation (nobody wants the prospect of a dry Labour Day weekend I guess). On the other hand, MPI workers seem to be headed for a strike of their own.

- Nurses at Manitoba's largest hospital are working crazy amounts of overtime. The NDP is vowing to get this under control.

- Winnipeg's firefighters' union has endorsed the NDP in the election.

- Why didn't Trump attend the Republican primary debate? Because he didn't have to. There was never any danger of him not being talked about.

- Rudy Giuliani has been booked in Georgia. Trump followed shortly thereafter. Funny thing is, Giuliani is apparently now so broke he needs help with his bail. Still no sign of Trump's sheeple turning away from him.

- An Ontario court has ruled that yes, Jordan Peterson does need to follow the requirements of his professional association in order to retain his license to practice psychology. Predictably, his fanboys are up in arms.

- Still no clarity on the crash of Yevgeny Prigozhin's jet. Some Wagner-affiliated folks are alleging that the plane was shot down, which is interesting but perhaps not surprising. Whether this will help Putin is another question entirely. Not everyone is even sure that it was actually him on board.

- Meanwhile, Ukraine claims to have landed troops in Crimea, and there were more attacks by Russia, causing at least one fatality, as Ukraine tries to celebrate their Independence Day.

- The dude who sold tickets for a vapourware festival is trying again.

News roundup, 23 Aug 2023

- An aircraft reported to have been carrying Wagner Group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin has apparently crashed, killing all aboard. Just an accident, I'm sure. Meanwhile, General Sergey Surovikin, aka "General Armageddon", has been sacked, perhaps because of his reluctance to do anything about the Wagner revolt. Not for his alleged involvement in war crimes of course, that was A-OK until questions about his loyalties arose.

- India's moon mission has succeeded where Russia's failed, which must be a bit humbling to the latter.

- The continuing wildfire crisis in BC has led to tensions in the Shuswap region, which appears to be one of those places where people don't like following rules and think they know how to fight fires better than actual firefighters. Meanwhile in Maui, over 800 people are now listed as missing. And more and more people are unable to get insurance as companies reevaluate the risks involved, potentially in places not previously thought prone to wildfires. And Greece continues to burn as well.

- Apparently the booze barons don't like publicly owned liquor stores. Presumably they want private stores who only care about moving product, without regard to the social harms of an unregulated market.

- Alberta's leaders are talking out both sides of their mouths, bragging about their geothermal energy even as they impose a moratorium on it and other forms of renewable energy. Just another reason why the fact that they got reelected reflects so badly on the people of the province. And Manitoba's government isn't doing much better; hopefully Manitobans will make a better choice than Albertans did earlier this year.

- The conspiracy nutters love Elon Musk even as he starts to look more and more like what they claim George Soros to be. Go figure...

- Mexico has introduced legislation regarding breakfast cereals that are more than 37% sugar, requiring warning labels and prohibiting the inclusion of mascots like Tony the Tiger on the packaging. Similar policies are being considered in the US. Kellogg's is fighting this tooth and nail, of course.

- A city councillor in the Gold Coast is accused of murdering his stepfather.

News roundup, 22 Aug 2023

- The "Inflation Reduction Act" continues to reap great dividends, though as usual not in reducing inflation but in helping with the switch over to green energy.

- Dozens of charred bodies have been found in the wake of a wildfire in Greece. 

- Due to high evaporation rates, Great Salt Lake is becoming so salty that it may soon be as dead as the Dead Sea. This won't be too good for people, or other animals, who live nearby, due to the amount of dust that is dispersed from its shores.

- Yet another variant of COVID-19 is spreading, though how serious a problem it will be remains to be seen.

- Even as Trump and his cronies are set to be booked on some of the most serious charges yet, the growing list of criminal charges against him is not yet denting his popularity, and may even be helping him - for the time being at least. Whether this is sustainable remains to be seen.

- The ICC's indictment of Putin is putting a damper on his travel plans.

- There has been a rash of vandalism of Holocaust memorial sites in Germany. There are fears that attacks on people will follow.

- The Manitoba NDP has committed to freezing Hydro rates for a year, as well as suspending the gas tax for "as long as inflation remains high". I fully approve of the first; I'm a little less sold on the second but as long as it's temporary I suppose it's reasonable. Probably good electioneering, if nothing else.

- The parents of the boy injured in the collapse of the walkway at Fort Gibraltar in May say that the child may end up permanently disabled. 

- A meta-analysis has concluded that trigger warnings do more harm than good, ironically because the warnings can themselves be triggering. No doubt some people who use the insertion of these warnings as a form of virtue signalling will be triggered by this study, though.

News roundup, 21 Aug 2023

- On the wildfire front, at least 50 structures are now known to have been destroyed in West Kelowna, but the worst hit areas of the city have yet to be surveyed in detail. Meanwhile, in the Shuswap area critical firefighting equipment has been stolen. Yellowknife remains intact for the time being but is still under threat.

- The displacement of thousands of people is creating fears about how addictions will be managed among the evacuees, due to the sharp increase in demand for methadone and similar medications in the places where people are being sent.

- As with other places that have experienced natural disasters recently, the insurance industry is warning that risks are increasing in Canada. Expect premiums to increase accordingly.

- Meanwhile Californians are still tallying the damage from floods as a result of Tropical Storm Hilary.

- On the positive side, Saudi Arabia is enlisting a Dutch company to build greenhouses to improve food security. Considerably less positive is the measures they've been taking to avoid having to share their food with migrants; unfortunately while they may be more proactive than some countries on this matter, they are unlikely to be the only rich country to do this in the future.

- Here's a map of areas expected to be unsuitable for human habitation by the end of this century, complete with the populations expected to be affected. Expect this to generate a lot more migrants in the future, which in turn will inspire more countries to follow the Saudis' example.

- A bylaw in Montreal that was introduced two years ago requires developers to include social, family and, in some places, affordable housing units to any new projects larger than 4,843ft², or else either pay a fine or surrender property to the city. To date, every single developer has chosen to pay up rather than include the affordable housing Five of them actually surrendered property rather than do it. Sounds like a loophole that needs to be closed.

- The Law Society of Manitoba has banned two Alberta-based lawyers from practising in the province following the revelation that they hired a private investigator to spy on a judge who was hearing a case involving COVID-19 public health orders. One of them also faces criminal charges.

- AI is becoming part of the culture wars, as rightwingers rail against any attempts to make AIs more "woke". No surprise that Musk is at the forefront of this. Meanwhile, some are suggesting that it may be necessary to nationalize the industry in order to keep it under democratic control, something which I'm all for but which may be difficult.

- A test run is being conducted for a partially sail powered cargo ship. More of this, please.

- Police have seized a cache of Molotov cocktails from an apartment in Winnipeg's North End. I can't see a good reason for the average person to be accumulating these.

- While much of the world is experiencing high inflation, China is now facing the opposite problem.

- The Republican party is now divided on the issue of support for Israel. While this might seem to be a good thing, given the nature of modern Republicans it's likely that those opposed to it are opposed for the wrong reasons.

- Apparently the Wagner Group's leader Yevgeny Prigozhin is hiding out somewhere in Africa. He's apparently still trying to recruit new members too.

- A store owner in California has been shot to death, apparently by someone who objected to the Pride flag displayed at her business.

News roundup, 20 Aug 2023

- The wildfires in BC and the Northwest Territories continue to wreak havoc. Meta's blocking of news continues to draw criticism for the delayed warning that has resulted; meanwhile the fires have economic and psychological impacts well beyond the areas actually burned.

- Speaking of wildfires, it seems that those in Maui have been greatly worsened by the drying up of the area by big corporations taking most of the water for golf courses and the like. 

- The Manitoba NDP is promising rebates of up to $4,000 for purchasers of electric vehicles. A step in the right direction.

- Safe consumption sites for hard drugs unquestionably save lives, but some report collateral damage in the surrounding neighbourhoods. Those who want them to continue to save lives will need to do something about that if the sites are to continue to operate, for the simple reason that the people who benefit from them are less likely to vote than the people who live nearby.

- Some activists are challenging the constitutionality of the first-past-the-post electoral system. I wish them luck.

- The Globe is challenging the view that people who work from home are more productive than those who return to the office, citing a study that reports a modest decrease in productivity when working from home. Now I suppose it's possible that this is the case, but even if it is, there are potentially countervailing advantages, not to the businesses as such but to humanity as a whole - the biggest one being less pollution from transportation. In cases like this you have to ask whether productivity is the be all and end all. And a funny thing about the Globe article - the phrase "commercial real estate" doesn't appear once, even though many people (myself included) think that's the real reason for the push back to the office.

- Even as there's been a big victory for the climate in a Montana court, the feds are fighting tooth and nail against a similar case at the federal level. Biden may be worlds better than the Republicans, but he doesn't look too good when he says, and his administration does, stuff like this.

- A candidate for the Republican presidential nomination has just said the quiet part out loud, suggesting that the voting age should be raised to 25 to keep those damn lefty kids from having an influence on election outcomes. Of course he has little chance of winning, and even less chance of getting through the necessary constitutional amendments, but it shows where their heads are at.

- The livestock lobby is working furiously to maintain and enhance their preferential treatment by governments over greener and more humane means of producing protein. The cynic in me thinks that the best hope of overcoming this would be for some rogue geneticist to engineer a virus with a long incubation period, which kills cattle and turns other animals, including humans, into asymptomatic carriers. Just putting that out there for you CRISPR-savvy greenies out there.

- Hugh Segal has died. He was one of an almost extinct breed of Conservative - one that you could respectfully disagree with, and often agree with (such as his championing of a basic income). Unfortunately there are few today like that.

- Israeli police are being accused of branding the Star of David on the cheek of a Palestinian prisoner. Now I'm no expert, but I don't think this meets internationally accepted standards of human rights.

News roundup, 18 Aug 2023

- When a city is being evacuated, the demand for airline tickets out of there is what economists call "inelastic". Some report that the airlines are taking advantage of this in Yellowknife. Meanwhile in BC, around 2500 people are being evacuated in the Kelowna area, and a bunch of people needed to be rescued from a lodge. And some say that Facebook/Meta's blocking of news has led to some people not getting warnings as quickly.

- Meanwhile, in Maui the head of the county's emergency management agency has resigned following criticism of his failure to raise the alarm. In line with tradition, though, he says it's for "health reasons". To be fair, his explanation for not using the alarms makes some sense; the alarms were put in place to warn of tsunamis, not wildfires, and he feared that if they sounded people would move away from the ocean and towards the fire.

- Beyond the death toll (111 and counting), the cultural damage from the fire could be immense. Better get used to it; over the coming decades this will happen to a lot of cultures as the environment in which they developed changes beyond recognition.

- Interestingly, evidence is now coming up for human-made fires contributing to the extinction of North American megafauna.

- Toronto is looking at a municipal sales tax. Not necessarily a bad idea, but here's a thought - what about a municipal income tax, levied on any income earned at an employer there? That way, people who commute into the city would pay their fair share towards the city that they depend on for employment. However, I don't think Ontario (or any other province) allows cities to do that today, though this article states that it was allowed before the world wars, and is still collected by many cities in Europe.

- In Massachusetts, where they aren't so afraid of income taxes, they've added a new tax bracket for incomes above a million dollars, which among other things will enable them to fund school lunches for the entire state. Something to learn from.

- In that other M state with four syllables, a mistrial has been declared in what appears to be a racially motivated shooting of a FedEx driver, because the police withheld key evidence against the suspects. Supposedly this was done in error, though one could be forgiven for wondering if it was intentional given Mississippi's reputation.

- Trump must be really scared if he's actually listening to his lawyers' advice to shut the hell up about the Georgia case.

- A municipal councillor in the RM of Springfield has been suspended for saying the quiet part out loud.

- Uh-oh, there are signs of a new COVID wave, and the tweaked boosters aren't available yet.

- The MLCC strike continues; meanwhile scabs are being offered $20 an hour. It was just mentioned on the radio that MPI staff have also voted to strike, though I can't find an article on this yet.

- Hydrogen fuel cell cars are losing the battle with battery electric vehicles. They still have some folks in their corner, though, perhaps because a lot of the hydrogen used in them is made from natural gas.

News roundup, 17 Aug 2023

- Europe's greenhouse gas emissions fell by 3% in the first quarter of this year, even as their economy grew. So anyone who tells you that's not possible is either lying or deluded.

- In other positive news, the "Inflation Reduction Act" in the US is having a huge effect on investment in green energy, not only there but abroad as well. 

- Counties in Texas have been determined, by their own interim attorney general, to not have the power to unilaterally ban wind farms. This is good news, but puzzling. Is their AG a "not totally crazy" Republican? Or is she worried that this could set a precedent that could be used by a more urban county to, say, restrict firearms?

- More difficult, though, is the fact that much of the world's remaining fossil fuel reserves will have to be left in the ground in order to limit the scale of the disaster that is climate change. Such a measure will cost investors trillions of dollars, and they won't give up easily on that.

- On the wildfire front, nearly 22,000 people are being evacuated from Yellowknife and surrounding area. Meanwhile, the critical thinking-challenged crowd are buying into absurd conspiracy theories surrounding the one in Maui.

- No prospect for the strike at Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries to be resolved soon. 

- In response to the stabbing attack at the University of Waterloo in June, the university has removed class locations and instructor names from its website to prevent specific classes from being targeted. 

- A tiny 200 ft² unit in Vancouver is now going for almost $2,000 a month.

- A company that contracted with Facebook to moderate posts is being sued by some of their Kenyan employees for exposing them to traumatic content such as beheadings and suicides without proper support.

- Looks like the recent report of a room-temperature superconductor is just so much hot air. Too bad.

News roundup, 16 Aug 2023

- Some info about the Georgia legislation being used to prosecute Trump and his cronies. The prosecutor is a force to be reckoned with; perhaps that's why her state recently passed legislation making it easier to investigate and remove prosecutors.

- In Alberta, the government has vowed to refuse to cooperate with federal efforts to green up the power grid.

- Their Manitoba counterparts appear to be applying the "starve the beast" model to the healthcare system.

- There's a possibility of the Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries strike going to binding arbitration. Meanwhile, the disruption at Teranet, the administrator for the land titles/property registry in this province, is expanding.

- The dramatic surge in road construction in Winnipeg this year is being blamed for a perceived increase in reckless behaviour and outright road rage in construction zones. No doubt this is partly true, but I can't help but wonder if stuff like the "Freedom Convoy" has given the kind of people who refuse to accept any constraints on their behaviour the confidence to defy the rules (like, say, the rules that say you can't use a closed lane or drive at normal speeds in construction areas).

- Speaking of the freedumb crowd, a bunch of them just tried to deny people the freedom to take their kids to a story reading because of the way the storyteller was dressed again.

- There has been some controversy over the recent World Police and Fire Games held in Winnipeg recently. One issue some have raised is the inclusion of a Hong Kong police team, given that force's involvement in the recent crackdown on anti-Beijing protesters. A fair question, though if you tried to enforce the exclusion of police forces with problematic human rights record across the board, you'd be forced to rename the event "World Fire Games".

- Speaking of police, a town in Minnesota just had their entire police force resign. Meanwhile, in Kansas, a newspaper that recently investigated the police chief just had their offices raided.

- Not all police are so bad, though. Texas troopers just restrained a politician who interfered with the work of paramedics.

- Yellowknife is now under significant threat from wildfires, and evacuation plans are being made for parts of the city.

- The engineer who designed that bridge in Saskatchewan which collapsed within hours of opening in 2018 has been suspended. Seems appropriate...

News roundup, 15 Aug 2023

- The minister responsible for Liquor and Lotteries is telling Manitobans to blame the union and the NDP for the strike. Meanwhile they're offering prospective scabs $20 an hour, considerably more than the usual starting wage at the corporation. The Stefanson government would of course rather you ignore this as well as their continued mismanagement of healthcare and focus on their dog whistles about Wab Kinew.

- Burnaby is launching their own municipal housing authority. Given that Metro Vancouver is the third most unaffordable in the world, this is sorely needed.

- A court in Montana has ruled in favour of a group of young people who say the state has violated their right to a “clean and healthful environment” by not considering the climate impacts of energy projects.

- New research shows that crops and solar panels actually mix nicely, contrary to the FUD coing from rightwing populists. Meanwhile, solar and wind have the potential to revolutionize electricity supply in Africa. The rollout of solar is also running ahead of schedule in the EU. Definitely good news, as is the fact that a record number of solar panels and heat pumps have been deployed in the UK.

- On the other hand, climate change itself is also running ahead of schedule, and in fact may be even more of a threat to food security than previously thought.

- The death toll in Maui continues to rise.

- A plastic bag ban in Kenya is failing due to a thriving black market in bags.

- Yet another indictment for Donald Trump, and this time it's state charges, which means that presidential powers of pardon do not apply. And the state's RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) law is actually broader than its federal counterpart.

- In New York City they now have robotic window washers. Which could be considered a positive thing (not putting workers in harms way) or a negative (putting them out of work).

- A school trustee in Conroe, Texas claims that a student was "traumatized" by seeing a poster showing people of different races holding hands. Yeah right...

- Where did the Russians get the idea to make such heavy use of mercenaries like the Wagner Group? Well, they had the example of the Americans and Blackwater to follow... 

- Can the resurgence of industrial policy be sustained in the face of large amounts of sovereign debt? Naysayers don't think so, but it remains to be seen.

 

News roundup, 14 Aug 2023

- Mixed news on the COVID-19 front. It's not as big a risk as it used to be, but it's not going away either, and continues to be a real threat to some people.

- Ukraine is investigating allegations that military recruiters accepted bribes and helped military-eligible men escape from the country.

- The death toll from the Maui fires continues to rise, as questions about the failure to raise the alarm continue. Meanwhile, closer to home, residents of Hay River are having to evacuate by air as their road access is cut off.

- A disconcerting raid on a newsroom in Kansas.

- Alabama is trying to get the Supreme Court to reconsider its own ruling regarding a map of its electoral districts.

- Musk seems to be trying to get out of the proposed cage match with Zuckerberg. Afraid he'll lose, perhaps.

- More charges seem to be coming against Trump.

- Another far-right populist on the rise, this one in Argentina.

- Niger is prosecuting their deposed president for high treason.

- Try as they might, they're going to have a hard time getting commercial real estate to its pre-pandemic heights. 

- Yet another case of an airline passenger behaving badly.

- Apparently the deadly mushrooms that killed three people in Australia came from the store.

News roundup, 13 Aug 2023

- Disconcertingly, there's been a decline in sales of meatless burgers recently.

- Also disconcertingly, the Manitoba Tories are running on a platform of fighting the federal carbon tax. I'd like to think Manitobans know better than to be sucked into that, but my faith in the electorate is not high. We'll have to see.

- Researchers in Saskatchewan are trying to learn about potentially invasive pests before they arrive.

- Some grim before and after pics from Lahaina. The death toll now stands at 93, and concerns are being raised about how little warning residents had.

- Only two Liquor Marts in the city are open this weekend. Some might note that both locations - Crestview and St Vital Square - are in the suburbs, and in fact quite some distance from downtown.

- Netflix's algorithms appear to be able to infer things about you that you haven't figured out yourself yet.

- It seems like wherever you go, be it here or even in such a low crime society as South Korea, there seems to be an outbreak of random violence in recent years. Not sure why, but I still think the pandemic broke a lot of people.

- Belarus is being accused of trying to destabilize its neighbours.

News roundup, 12 Aug 2023

 - It's now the worst wildfire season in Canadian history, with 13.4 million hectares burned compared to the previous record of 7.6 million. And summer isn't even over yet. Meanwhile, in Hawaii the number of fatalities is now 80 and counting and the state's attorney general is investigating the response.

- Yet another potential safety concern with the Boeing 737 MAX.

- A special counsel has been appointed to look into the affairs of Hunter Biden. The impact on his father's presidency remains to be seen.

- Many workers are less than happy about the push to return to the office. This is especially true for those who found remote work to be a refuge from racism.

- Trump's legal team is trying to have one of his upcoming trials moved from DC to West Virginia on the grounds that it would be easier to find an impartial jury there. While the chances of getting a change of venue are minimal, it may be all about the optics.

- Violent threats against public officials in the US continues to rise. To the surprise of few, the far right is responsible in most cases. Not as bad as it is in Ecuador so far but hey, give it time.

- The latest rich arseholes' gladiatorial games could be held in Italy.

- Poland's rightwing government is playing the nationalist, anti-migrant, anti-German card in leadup to parliamentary elections in the fall. Whether this will convince the masses remains to be seen.

News roundup, 11 Aug 2023

 - Ohio voters have resoundingly defeated a Republican-backed ballot measure to raise the voter threshold necessary to amend the state constitution from 50%+1 to 60%. It's generally recognized that this measure was an attempt to prevent an abortion rights amendment from being introduced. Notably, the turnout was higher than expected; it's almost as if the young folks can't be counted on to stay home on election day anymore. This bodes well for the Democrats next year.

- A recent poll indicates that Americans' views on climate change are more nuanced than you'd expect based on what you hear from the political class, although Republicans gonna Republican.

- The Greenbelt scandal in Ontario proceeds apace. Whether Ford's opening up of the Greenbelt can be stopped, though, remains to be seen.

- At least 55 people are now dead following the wildfires in Maui, with pretty much all of Lahaina destroyed. Meanwhile Ottawa has the opposite problem.

- Management at Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries are getting raises, even as rank and file staff are striking for a far more modest raise. The province seems to have a bit of a double standard here. I guess we can expect more booze shortages for the time being.

- A trustee with southeast Winnipeg's Louis Riel School Division, who was suspended in June for hate-related online activity, is now being investigated for possible conflict of interest as a result of a payment from a far-right activist in a completely different city. It's almost as if her purpose in running was to represent Winkler, not her own ward.

- That's no asteroid, that's a space station!

News roundup, 10 Aug 2023

- A catastrophic wildfire has devastated the Hawaiian town of Lahaina.

- No, COVID-19 is still not over.

- Danielle Smith has sabotaged billions of dollars worth of green energy projects and the associated jobs. Even free-market types are bewildered that she would do this. Meanwhile the feds are threatening to withhold funding from energy projects that don't reduce greenhouse emissions, which of course has got the UCP's knickers in a knot. 

- On the other hand, Colorado, which has been compared to Alberta, is moving forward with emissions reduction plans, despite the annoyance of energy companies.

- Ontario's auditor general has found signs of conflict of interest in the government's plans to build in the Greenbelt. No surprise there.

- A religious nut from BC, who is trying to sue the Quebec government for cancelling his booking at a convention centre for a rally, claims that wildfires are divine retribution for allowing access to abortion.

- Apparently when you rant on social media about wanting to kill people, including the President of the United States, and then confront the FBI with firearms when they come to get you, you might get killed. Who'd have thought, eh?

- Trump fans at fundie/evangelical churches apparently don't like it when their pastors cite woke nonsense like the Sermon on the Mount. And rather than backing down when it's pointed out that the pastor is actually quoting the word of Christ, they try to argue that it no longer applies in our time. Strangely, they never seem to apply that logic to other biblical verses such as Leviticus 18:22.

- In New Zealand they're making inroads in housing affordability by reforming zoning. There's a lesson in there if Americans - and Canadians - are willing to listen.

- A lot of people don't realize that the impact of climate change will be disproportionately on the poorest. Perhaps we shouldn't be too quick to correct this misconception, though; they're probably more likely to favour action if they think it's a concern for them.

- Apparently people are more likely to try plant-based food if it doesn't have the word "vegan" on the label.

- India is making significant inroads into greenhouse gas emissions.

- Apparently pardoning murderers and sending them to the front lines of a war doesn't always teach them not to kill people.

- Ron DeSantis, who has vowed to pardon Trump if elected President, is punishing prosecutors who aren't aggressive enough for his liking.

- Spain may lose their remaining glaciers within a decade.

- A candidate for Ecuador's presidency has been assassinated mid-campaign.

- China, despite its huge size, has only one time zone. Yes, the reason is political.

- Good news on the green energy front from Morocco.

- A huge donor to the Republican Party has been sentenced to 21 years in prison for sex trafficking of minors. Apparently it's not drag queens we have to worry about after all. As someone in a Reddit thread on the subject said, "every accusation is a confession with them."

News roundup, 9 Aug 2023

- Home invasions? Try that in a small town. Oh wait, they did, and they succeeded.

- The federal government is actually showing signs of playing hardball with laggard provinces - they may be forced to agree to federal emissions targets for the grid in order to access federal money. A step in the right direction, assuming they don't chicken out. Meanwhile Danielle Smith is doing her damnedest to crush the thriving clean energy sector in her own province, by imposing a seven month moratorium on any new projects. Because freedumb. Whether she is willing to cut off her nose to spite her face remains to be seen, but my money's on her pushing forward anyway, just like Ron DeSantis in Florida.

- On the positive side, solar power is helping to keep the power on in Europe despite huge demands on the grid due to air conditioning use. Which makes perfect sense; the hottest part of the day is usually the sunniest.

- Also positive - the Inflation Reduction Act is doing wonders for clean energy.

- Lula, for all his faults, seems to actually be taking action to protect the Amazon. It's almost as if elections actually mattered, sometimes.

- Having your air conditioning fail is annoying, and expensive, but it should not be fatal. It was for these people though. Expect this to be a more widespread problem in the future.

- Why does Alabama still have such a bad reputation for race relations? Maybe because of stuff like this.

- In 1970 Richard Nixon was doing his darnedest to prevent Salvador Allende from taking office in Chile. This should of course come as no surprise to anyone who knows what happened a few years later.

- Self-proclaimed champion of free speech Elon Musk is doing everything he can to silence a nonprofit that dares to point out the prevalence of hate speech on his platform.

- One of the biggest beneficiaries of working from home is now ordering their own workers back to the office. If I had to guess, I'd say it might be pressure from their biggest shareholders, some of which doubtless have significant exposure to the commercial real estate market.

- Weird stuff is happening to water temperatures in the Pacific, with a small area being cooled as most of the ocean is getting hotter. Consequences TBA...

- We know that a lot of the same kind of people who burn the Quran also like Putin. Some say this may not be a coincidence; at the very least, the Kremlin stands to benefit from divisions arising because of this.

Current affairs roundup, 8 Aug 2023

 

- The BC port strike has been settled. It's a different story at Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries, where the staff have gone on strike provincewide. Expect a lot of pink elephant sightings in Manitoba this summer.

- Media outlets in Canada have asked the Competition Bureau to investigate Meta's blocking of news. The effectiveness of this remains to be seen.

- The Republican governor of New Hampshire is trying to get anti-Trump Republicans to settle on a single candidate in the primaries. Whether this has any chance of succeeding or not is another question.

- Ukrainian police report having foiled a plot to kill Zelensky.

- In England, COVID-19 and flu vaccines are being limited to those over 65 or with other health risks. It seems hard to justify this; people who aren't at high risk of serious illness themselves can still give the diseases to people who are. Maybe they think this will win more approval from the "freedumb" crowd. The fact that they're actually denying much of the population the freedom to get vaccinated probably doesn't matter to their target audience.

- Another potential flashpoint for superpower conflict. Just what we need...

- Trump seems to be daring judges to lock him up. Which makes one wonder; he's not the brightest guy around, but he's smarter than he appears. Is he trying to set up a situation where his sheeple will rise up en masse against the government? And if so, could such an uprising go further than the Jan. 6 one? How far? Stay tuned.

- The Kremlin says it's "theoretically possible" to cancel the next presidential election. Now why would they bring that up?

Meta/Facebook's war on news in Canada

 

Well, Meta is now well on their way towards scrubbing news content from Canadians' Facebook feeds. It's being done incrementally; currently I can still see news posts on other people's timelines, but others are reporting that they can't see the ones on mine. Some of my friends say that it isn't limited to Canadian news sites either; apparently it's blocking links to foreign news sites, and even Wikipedia, at least for some users.

Some have pointed out that the Trudeau government's handling of the situation has been suboptimal. According to the CBC, Australia's legislation had enough flexibility to enable their country's news sites to make arrangements with Meta, while Canada's did not.

I can't help but wonder, though, if Meta has another agenda in mind as well. Several years ago it came out that the company was concerned that people weren't sharing enough "personal" content, and instead posting more of things like news. Most likely they figure that the data they get from people's personal posts and their friends' responses is more valuable as a marketing commodity than data about what kinds of news people post and read. And it's well known that they are not above conducting psychological and sociological experiments on their users. So maybe they've been waiting for a while to conduct an experiment in a nice controlled setting (e.g. limited to a country with a smallish population) on whether they get more of the stuff they want if they eliminate the competition from news posts. Doing such an experiment worldwide would be risky, because it might very well lead to a substantial drop in the number of active users, but they know darned well that Canadians will be less likely to drop Facebook if their friends and relatives in the rest of the world are still using it.

If nothing else, it's given me an incentive to reactivate this blog.