- One thing that we see a lot of these days are analogies with the world wars of the last century. In particular, with the Russia-Ukraine conflict, some of the more hawkish folks out there are talking a lot about the leadup to WWII, and the popular Coles Notes interpretation of the Munich Conference of 1938. But the popular interpretation of the conference isn't necessarily correct, and as I've said a number of times before, even if it were it is not correct to apply the rules of the pre-nuclear age to the present day. It seems that Gwynne Dyer agrees with me on this matter.
- Some hopeful signs on the climate front - the production of electricity from geothermal energy got a big boost from a utility in California, Southern California Edison. The company is backing the construction of a 400 megawatt plant by Fervo Energy, which will produce enough power for around 400,000 homes. Besides producing power as consistently as coal, natural gas, or nuclear power, geothermal has an additional advantage in that many of the skills useful for drilling oil and gas wells are readily transferable to drilling wells for geothermal plants - making it a bit easier to contain the blind populist rage that results when one talks about cutting fossil fuel production. Also potentially good news - a biotech firm has received a significant investment to build a bioreactor for the production of synthetic meat, giving hope that economies of scale will kick in and eventually undercut conventional meat. Unfortunately these improvements probably come far too late for a lot of people, even in rich countries like the US - but hopefully not too late for a lot of other people.
- A former Liberal MP, Frank Baylis, says he will consider a run for the party leadership if Trudeau steps down. One unnamed MP has expressed the opinion that Baylis may not have the necessary experience, but maybe that's missing the point. While ousting Trudeau probably wouldn't get the party returned to office next year, it's possible that ditching Trudeau now might steal a little bit of the Tories' thunder, since Trudeau's persona is probably one of the Cons' biggest fundraising assets. Then, following a less devastating election than is currently expected, he could graciously step aside and make way for the likes of Mark Carney to take over the party and eventually bring it back to power.
- The City of Winnipeg is working on setting up a residential composting program as found in some other cities. Unfortunately the program isn't expected to be up and running until 2030; the city says that the time is needed to construct an industrial scale facility to process the material; they intend to find a private contractor to build and operate the facility. Apparently, though, other cities, such as Regina, make do with a big concrete pad, which could presumably be constructed a lot sooner than that. To be fair, though, Winnipeg is over 3 times as big as Regina and maybe that wouldn't be feasible with a larger amount of waste, especially if it were constructed at Brady or somewhere else close to residential neighbourhoods who might not appreciate the smell of an open-air facility.
- The woman who ran a crack ring in my neighbourhood and famously branded her crack by dying it pink has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.
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