News roundup, 6 Aug 2024

- Kamala Harris is expected to announce her running mate today. The most likely choices are two governors, Tim Walz of Minnesota and Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, as well as Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona. Polling suggests that Kelly is the most popular with the public.

- A Virginia man has been charged with posting large numbers of threats to social media. Targets include Kamala Harris as well as Joe Biden, Justin Trudeau, and FBI director Christopher Wray.

- Across the UK, the rioting sparked by disinformation about the identity of the suspect in the mass stabbing in the town of Southport that killed three children continues. The suspect is Rwandan and has no apparent connection to Islam, but the rioters aren't letting the truth get in the way of a good time.

- A former sessional lecturer at Brandon University believes that at least half of his students have used AI to cheat. Among other things, he says some of their essays referenced sources that didn't exist (a common issue with using AI for this purpose). On a possibly more positive note, there seems to be a backlash building against the widespread use of AI, with some companies withdrawing their use of the technology (or at least not promoting their use of it anymore).

- Winnipeg's Health Sciences Centre is looking at installing weapon scanners to reduce the risk of violence to front line staff.

- Fentanyl was involved in four out of five overdose deaths in Canada last year. Up until now, most of the fentanyl sold on Canadian streets has been imported, but since 2019, when China cracked down on the export of the drug, more of the production has been domestic. The pandemic, with its impact on supply chains, has accelerated the trend. Now I'm all in favour of "on-shoring" industry, but maybe not this one.

- The man convicted of manslaughter after throwing the trailer hitch that fatally injured Barbara Kentner in Thunder Bay in 2016 has had his day parole revoked following several breaches of his conditions. These include impaired driving, theft, and associating with people with whom he was ordered not to consort. The parole board also noted that he'd gotten a Confederate flag tattoo while on day parole, which doesn't speak favourably to the success of efforts to rehabilitate him.

- Power utilities are paying people to hand over control of their thermostats during high demand periods. The energy savings are significant; the utilities sometimes refer to such measures as "virtual power plants" because of the amount of additional energy they make available to the system.

News roundup, 23 May 2024

- Norway, Ireland, and Spain have announced that they will be recognizing a Palestinian state. Not surprisingly the Israelis are up in arms; they're withdrawing their ambassadors from those countries as well as summoning those countries' ambassadors and making them watch video of female Israeli captives seized in the October attack. They're thus implying, not so subtly, that support for a Palestinian state necessarily means support for such atrocities. Some would say that tarring the entire Palestinian people with one brush that way is, well, racist, but I guess we're not allowed to say that.

- The University of Manitoba is getting pushback for their decision to remove the video of Dr. Gem Newman's valedictory address; many are understandably a bit uncomfortable that a single hissy fit from a billionaire donor is enough to get something like this done. Meanwhile both Newman and others have weighed in on the donor's comments.

- Julian Assange will get the opportunity to appeal his deportation to the US. Apparently the court was asking for written assurances from the American authorities that Assange would be accorded the same rights as a US citizen under the First Amendment, and the Americans were unwilling to provide that.

- A family medical practice in Ottawa is discharging all of its out-of-province patients, citing administrative difficulties with referrals and the like. The thing is, Ottawa lies on the provincial boundary, and forms a single metro area with its neighbouring city of Gatineau, Quebec. Many people live in one city and access services in the other, so some flexibility on this matter would have been nice.

- The team at OpenAI who were focused on long-term AI risks has been disbanded. The team had been plagued with resignations for months, however due to a "non-disparagement agreement" in the documents that you have to sign when leaving there have been few details of why. There are suspicions, though, mostly associated with CEO Sam Altman.

- Some residents in Newmarket, Ontario are going bananas over a proposed condo building - because they're worried about its impact on the local Tim Hortons. You can't make this stuff up, can you.

- An 18 year old student at the University of Victoria has died of a fentanyl overdose. Her parents believe that the 911 operator and campus security did not act fast enough; the province has ordered a coroner's inquest.

- A bear that climbed a tree in Winnipeg's Wildwood neighbourhood was successfully tranquilized and transported out of the city.

- The apartment complex in west Winnipeg that was evacuated last week due to structural concerns is fenced in and is supposed to have 24 hour security. One evacuee found out the hard way how reliable that security is - someone cut through the fence and stole her motorcycle, damaging another bike in the process. Meanwhile, people who live in houses behind the building have been warned to be ready to evacuate as well in case the worst happens.

- A woman in Dauphin, Manitoba has been arrested after stealing a septic truck from nearby Ebb and Flow First Nation and leading police on a chase, at times veering into the oncoming lane. Happily nobody was hurt in this little impromptu bit of real-life GTA.