Monday, August 12, 2024

News roundup, 12 Aug 2024

- An ATR-72 turboprop operated by the Brazilian carrier Voepass crashed in a residential neighbourhood outside São Paulo, killing all 62 passengers and crew aboard the aircraft. Dramatic videos shot by onlookers show the aircraft descending in what appears to be a flat spin; preliminary analysis by Juan Browne (of the blancoliro YouTube channel) suggests that icing is a likely factor, though an official report is probably months away.

- Alberta premier Danielle Smith has been holding what she calls "town hall" sessions across the province, but unlike most events called by that term, these are not open to the general public but are for party members only, and the media is barred from such events. Independent journalist Katie Teeling did manage to slip into one of these events, though; the general picture that one gets is that UCP members are batshit insane, so that's probably the reason for the restricted access.

- Pickering, Ontario city councillor Lisa Robinson is being condemned by her colleagues for appearing on a far-right podcast by Kevin J. Johnston. Johnson reportedly declared that it's not her that's the fascist, it's all the rest of them. More seriously, in the course of the podcast several of Robinson's colleagues were labelled as "pedophiles" by Johnson (for no obvious reason except that it's become a standard far-right buzzword for everything they don't approve of) and their private phone numbers were posted along with their photos and a statement that they deserve "a baseball bat to the face". Johnson, a onetime candidate for Mayor of Calgary, has a long history of harassing people, including an Alberta Health Services worker who he was recently ordered to pay $650,000 for defaming her. For her part, Robinson also has a history of siccing her sheeple on her colleagues and has faced sanctions from council for her actions.

- Vancouver's integrity commissioner, Lisa Southern, has released a report that raises concerns about the work environment in Mayor Ken Sim's office, including the actions of two staffers who tried to discredit the commissioner of the city's park board. Southern's report comes as the city council, dominated by Sim's party, prepares to suspend the work of the integrity commissioner's office. Coincidence?

- Manitoba's francophone school division, which has already banned cellphones in its schools, is taking further measures to reduce students' screen time by limiting computer use by students to one hour per day.

- The City of Philadelphia has ordered its remote workers back into the office five days a week, despite the clear benefits to the workers of not having to go in. Interestingly, the city's leadership has admitted that it's not about productivity, but rather about a "leadership philosophy". Strangely, the folks at NPR, who are usually pretty good at asking the right questions, have not asked any about things like commercial real estate.

- China, perhaps inspired by the bizarre "birds aren't real" satire of conspiracy theories, has developed an actual drone that looks like a bird.

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