News roundup, 12 June 2025

- An Air India Boeing 787 with 242 passengers and crew on board has crashed in a residential area shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad airport on a flight to London. This is the first crash of a 787; video here.

- California governor Gavin Newsom is warning that other states may soon see troops deployed as is happening in Los Angeles.

- Teachers in Alberta have overwhelmingly approved a strike mandate. Given the Smith government's unwillingness to be reasonable (indeed, their base probably considers unreasonableness to be a virtue) it seems unlikely that a strike will be avoided. Education in the province is not in good shape in any case; one school in Airdrie has closed its library and music room in order to convert those spaces into classrooms.

- Saskatchewan is following Alberta's lead in putting American booze back on the shelves. I guess it's too traumatic for the people of those provinces to not be able to get the Jack Daniels and Jim Beam they need to drink while listening to country music. Meanwhile, the return of the booze to Alberta shelves might not get as many takers as they're hoping; demand is down.

- A new law introduced by the Ford government in Ontario holds landlords, both residential and commercial, liable for drug offenses that occur on their premises. Penalties include fines of up to $250,000 and/or up to a year in jail. There are fears about the potential impact on homelessness, if people with addiction issues are denied leases, for instance. It may also pose a risk to music venues and nightclubs.

- When the EPA introduced a rule in 2009 that required industries to report their carbon emissions, this in itself led to a drop in emissions. Of course under the Trump regime this rule is being dropped.

- In addition to consulting AI chatbots about mental health matters, people are asking them for dating and relationship advice. I daresay this isn't such a great idea either. On a related note, Canadian AI researcher Yoshua Bengio is warning that current AIs seem to be putting their own interests ahead of ours, using things like deception. One AI apparently was observed to covertly insert its own code into another system to avoid being replaced. Bengio has founded a nonprofit called LawZero which he says will build AIs that don't do that stuff. Some folks in the related Reddit thread wish to remind us that OpenAI was originally founded as a nonprofit, then essentially said "Just kidding!" and became a for-profit company.

News roundup, 7 Oct 2024

- The US Supreme Court has refused to preemptively block new EPA rules concerning methane and mercury, asking for the plaintiffs to file their claims in U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia first. This is somewhat promising, though if the case does land on their desks after going through the lower court there is no guarantee that they will uphold the rules.

- While natural gas has been promoted as a somewhat cleaner alternative to coal, a recent study has concluded that the climate impact of leakage during the transportation of liquefied natural gas is actually worse, largely due to the inevitable leakage of methane (the main constituent of the fuel).

- Bubba Pollock, the man who posted a selfie with a woman's dying father in order to harass her after getting into an online debate with her, was sentenced to 60 days in jail. He has a history of other criminal activity, including bribing homeless people to steal Pride flags and to pull fire alarms in libraries where drag-related events were being held. This is on top of more mundane (but equally disturbing) convictions such as sharing intimate images without consent.

- Physicians in Manitoba are getting tired of having to waste time signing sick notes demanded by employers. The province is one of three that have no restrictions as to when an employer can demand one; Doctors Manitoba is calling for this to be changed, saying that this can open up more time for actually useful patient visits.

- The chances of averting a healthcare strike in Manitoba are quickly fading; the unions say they are nowhere near a deal as tomorrow's strike deadline approaches.

- A child in the Brantford area has died of rabies, after having apparently contracted the disease from a bat while on vacation in Timiskaming District. Disconcertingly, there was no visible sign of a bite from the animal; experts are recommending that anyone who has been in contact with bats to get immediate medical attention.

News roundup, 8 Feb 2024

- A preliminary version of the City of Winnipeg's 2024 budget has been presented. Transit is faring better than I'd feared; the reworking of the system is still scheduled to go ahead and service will be added to some suburban neighbourhoods; on the downside the fares are expected to increase by 10 cents each year for four years. We may also see the ability to use credit or debit cards on buses (something implemented by other cities years ago). There's also more being budgeted towards urban forestry, and they're looking at new sources of sorely needed revenue. On the downside, three city pools and 20 wading pools will be closing.

- The city is also looking at selling landfill gas on the natural gas market, rather than just flaring it as they do now. This could mean a 40% reduction in emissions, as well as $10 million in revenue for the city over a 20 year period.

- Manitoba is making moves towards faster accreditation of foreign-educated healthcare professionals. This is very much needed, both for the sake of our healthcare system and the professionals themselves (lets face it, driving a cab isn't the living it used to be).

- The question of what Justin Trudeau should say about the American presidential election is a tricky one. There's said to be a tradition of Canadian and American leaders not interfering in each other's elections (well, JFK actively worked to elect Lester Pearson but I guess we don't talk about that). The thing is, Trudeau is naturally tempted to draw comparisons between Trump and Pierre Poilievre; this is definitely a bit of an exaggeration but there are similarities in their populist style (and stronger similarities in terms of who tends to support them). This could have short-term benefits for Trudeau if it forces Poilievre to take a position on Trump, but two senior diplomats are warning that this could make things much worse for Canada if Trump manages to win.

- The Conservatives continue to be at the top of the polls nationally. The latest Nanos poll has the Cons at 40%, the Liberals at 24.7%, and the NDP at 20.6%, with the other parties in single digits.

- A private member's motion by NDP MP Lisa Marie Barron, which called for a citizens' assembly on electoral reform, has been defeated, despite the support of all of the NDP, Green, and Bloc MPs as well as 40 Liberals and 3 Conservatives. The only surprise is that so many Liberals did vote for it; most of their colleagues, though, as well as all other Conservatives, voted to protect their own perceived interests.

- The US Environmental Protection Agency is tightening the rules on soot emissions. Industry groups, though, are making angry noises.

I CAN'T HEAR YOU! I CAN'T HEAR YOU!

Well, that's what this story sounds like, anyway:

The White House in December refused to accept the Environmental Protection Agency’s conclusion that greenhouse gases are pollutants that must be controlled, telling agency officials that an e-mail message containing the document would not be opened, senior E.P.A. officials said last week.

The document, which ended up in e-mail limbo, without official status, was the E.P.A.’s answer to a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that required it to determine whether greenhouse gases represent a danger to health or the environment, the officials said.

This week, more than six months later, the E.P.A. is set to respond to that order by releasing a watered-down version of the original proposal that offers no conclusion. Instead, the document reviews the legal and economic issues presented by declaring greenhouse gases a pollutant.

Nice. I wonder why that might be? Well, a former EPA official, Jason Burnett, thinks he knows:

More details are emerging about the maneuvers that blocked the Environmental Protection Agency’s finding that greenhouse gases were a threat to public health and welfare and should be regulated.

White House officials initially blessed the agency’s efforts to create a basis for restricting emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas produced by human activities, but reversed course after passage of an energy bill last December, a former agency official has told a Congressional committee. He said the White House was won over by the argument, pushed by oil companies and others, that such regulation should not be part of the Bush legacy,

The official, Jason K. Burnett, once a Bush appointee and now an Obama supporter, told the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming that the argument for putting off any carbon dioxide limits was made by “individuals working for particular oil companies, Exxon Mobil,” as well as oil industry trade associations.

From here. Not a huge surprise that this sort of thing happens, of course, but it's great that this got out. Here's hoping the story goes viral.