Thursday, September 7, 2023

News roundup, 7 Sept 2023

- The CBC has rolled out the Manitoba edition of their Vote Compass for the upcoming election. Not sure who you're voting for? Take the quiz and see what it recommends.

- A report commissioned for the City of Winnipeg has concluded that cleaning up debris from demolition sites and billing the owners might not be cost-effective - even if the land were seized and sold by the city it might not pay for the cleanup costs. I suspect, though, that if you factored in things such as the effect on sale prices of nearby properties (and hence tax revenues from said properties) it might be still worthwhile, even in dollar terms. And that's not counting other, non-monetary externalities.

- The Alberta government is not posting information about class sizes anymore. But that's OK, about half the province will vote for their UCP shepherds no matter what, so no need for transparency.

- Air Canada seems very concerned about turnaround times for flights - so much so that they didn't take the time to clean up the vomit on two seats before assigning it to passengers, then kicked the passengers off the plane when they had the audacity to complain about it. Between that and a similar incident involving blood on an Air France flight in July, one has to conclude that the golden age of air travel is long gone.

- A judge has been appointed to head the inquiry into possible foreign interference in Canadian elections. Details (including how much of the inquiry's conclusions will be made public) have yet to be determined.

- A timber company in BC is suing the province and the Haida Gwaii Management Council for restricting old growth logging. 

- New cars are not good news for privacy (and not just electric ones either, notwithstanding the way some have spun it).

- China wants to ban clothes that are "detrimental to the spirit of Chinese people". They don't seem to have defined that too clearly either; I suppose if you live in China it's best not to dress "different", just to be on the safe side.

- Dynamite fishing has been around for a long time and has been illegal in most places for almost as long due to its destructive effect on fish stocks and the rest of the ecosystem. Unfortunately many people don't let that stop them. Because freedom, or something.

- The state of Utah is being sued for their catastrophic mismanagement of Great Salt Lake.

- Putin is trying to get closer to another pariah state. Because when you have so few friends, you need all you can get.

- Elon Musk's idea of "free speech" depends a lot on who's doing the speaking. Hate propaganda? That's allowed. Criticize Elon, though, and he'll sue your ass.

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