News roundup, 7 Nov 2023

- James Hansen, who has been warning of the dangers of climate change for a long time, is now calling for a serious look at geoengineering as perhaps the only way to keep climate change within tolerable limits. Others are understandably uncomfortable with this, but perhaps we're past the point where this can be avoided, especially when everyone's distracted by such petty things as wars.

- Researchers have found a dramatic increase in the numbers of flowering plants in Antarctica.

- The attacks on Canada's carbon tax continue, even as it seems to be working in changing people's behaviours. Unfortunately you can only fight populism so far; even the Manitoba NDP is now calling for an exemption for heating fuels. I still say if you want to do something about affordability it would be better to lower sales taxes. That way you improve affordability for everyone while still rewarding those who reduce their environmental impact, but there seems to be no appetite for that for whatever reason.

- Given that even in the best case scenario things are going to get worse, many jurisdictions are trying to limit development in vulnerable areas, but it's not easy.

- California's Department of Transportation has fired their deputy director of planning and modal programs, apparently for opposing new highway construction.

- On a (slightly) more positive note, researchers at the University of Waterloo believe they've found a feasible way to use captured carbon to make fuel. Probably not enough in itself, but it could help, especially with difficult sectors like aviation. There has also been an agreement reached at the global level to create a "loss and damage" fund, to be administered by the World Bank, but details remain to be worked out.

- A junior minister in the Netanyahu government, heritage minister Amihai Eliyahu, has been "suspended" from cabinet meetings after saying the quiet part out loud. I guess that kind of talk, at least in public, is too much even for Netanyahu; instead the plan is to remain directly in control of Gaza after the smoke clears. While some think the region could eventually be handed over to the Palestinian Authority, there's apparently not much appetite for that on the ground. Meanwhile, this conflict has set a grim record for the number of UN aid workers killed.

- Vancouver police are investigating several hate-related incidents in connection with the war. This includes a car being driven into a protest.

- Donald Trump is behaving as you would expect him to in the courtroom.

- Four men have been charged in the theft of an art installation at Blenheim Palace, the birthplace of Winston Churchill. The installation, a solid gold toilet worth an estimated £4.8 million, has not been recovered.

News roundup, 6 Nov 2023

- Israel's military say they have surrounded Gaza City; they are expected to enter in force within 48 hours. The Americans have sent a nuclear submarine to the area, presumably to show everyone involved who's boss. The death toll in Gaza is now close to 10,000, and the endgame is still unclear. Meanwhile, in the US, pro-Palestinian demonstrators are warning that failure on the part of the Biden administration to restrain Israel could cost Biden the 2024 election. Realistically speaking, this may be an empty threat, as presumably most of these people do not want Trump in power either (it's not like Trump is going to be any better on this issue, after all, and if he's going to be just as bad on this issue and much worse on others the activists would be cutting off their nose to spite their face). And sadly (though not surprisingly) the conflict has set off the deranged bigots around the world.

- The Liberal government pledged in 2019 to phase out open-net salmon farms, which cause serious problems for wild salmon by allowing sea lice to flourish, by 2025. Unfortunately they may be backing away from this.

- Trump's civil fraud trial continues in New York. Some think that this could be especially damaging to Trump because it calls into question how wealthy he actually is, though this may be wishful thinking because his supporters probably won't believe anything coming out of the trial anyway.

- A whistleblower who revealed war crimes committed by Australian troops in Afghanistan is being tried for disclosing classified information; the maximum penalty he could face if convicted is a 100 year sentence.

- A man flying to Canada having finally obtained permanent resident status became ill during the flight. Air Canada refused to divert the flight despite his severe symptoms, and he died shortly after landing.

- Ever stood on a sidewalk waiting for the perfect cloud conditions to take a photo? This guy got handcuffed by police and fined for loitering for just that while trying to get the perfect shot of Château Frontenac in Quebec City; it seems that the American consulate is located in that building, and diplomats got antsy about what he was doing.

News roundup, 4 Nov 2023

- The Israelis are learning the same lesson as the Russians in Ukraine or the Americans in numerous countries around the world, namely that you can't always just march into a place and expect to be able to conquer it. Meanwhile, Rashida Tlaib, the only actual Palestinian in the US Congress, is accusing Biden of supporting genocide with his staunch backing of Israel.

- The Kinew government is moving forward with plans to open a safe consumption site in downtown Winnipeg, much to the relief of people who actually work with addiction issues. Some will no doubt be skeptical, but to those people my question is - how do you figure the hard drug situation downtown can get any worse than it already is?

- In Ontario, the auditor general is moving on from the probe of the Greenbelt scandal to the equally suspect plans to redevelop Ontario Place. Whether it will be enough to stop the scheme remains to be seen.

- It's well known that policing is the biggest single item in the budget of most municipalities in Canada or the US. The police don't like it when you point this out, though.

- The pilot study that Ontario conducted with basic income back in 2017, much like the Mincome study conducted in Manitoba in the 1970s, seems to have brought real benefits to its participants. Whether the political will is there to roll out a full universal basic income program, as well as how this would impact inflation if applied to everybody, remain unanswered questions at this time.

- Police in Dallas were in a drawn out standoff at an apartment. After six hours without a response from the occupants, they forced their way in only to find that nobody was there.

- When someone says "I'm not racist/homophobic/transphobic but..." it's usually a sign that they are that. This person does not appear to be an exception to that rule.

News roundup, 3 Nov 2023

- In the West Bank, attacks on Palestinians by Israeli settlers have accelerated dramatically since Hamas' attack on Israel last month. Over 130 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank in the last month, in addition to the more than 9,000 killed in Gaza so far and the 1,400 Israelis killed in the initial attack. Meanwhile Hamas says they are willing to release the hundreds of hostages they are holding, in return for the release of the Palestinians currently held in Israeli prisons.

- MPI workers are back on the job today, but the backlog of claims, as well as road tests for new drivers, could take months to clear.

- The Manitoba NDP is working to undo the push by the Tories to use P3s to build schools. A step in the right direction for sure, but the Tories don't like it of course; they want more public money put in the hands of their friends. The NDP also remains committed to freezing Hydro rates, although some fiddling will be necessary to make it work due to reduced profits as a result of lower water levels in the utility's reservoirs.

- The Philippines is pulling out of the Belt and Road Initiative (which is sometimes called China's version of the Marshall Plan), largely due to disputes over China's territorial claims in the South China Sea.

- A small chartered aircraft with seven people on board made an emergency landing on a gravel road in the RM of St Andrews, just north of Winnipeg, after losing both engines. There were no injuries, nor even any damage to the aircraft, which was successfully towed out to a paved highway, refueled, and flown back to the airport. I suspect the pilot is going to have some 'splainin to do though.

- Compared to regular bicycles, e-bikes are heavy. The one that hit this guy weighed 30 kilograms, and stuff like this has led some to suggest that e-bikes should be treated as motor vehicles for insurance purposes.

- OPP officers noticed rim marks on the shoulder of the 401 near Belleville on Wednesday, and followed the marks to a rental van whose left rear rim had been worn down almost to the hub. When they pulled the vehicle over they noticed several cases of beer with the labeling primarily in French; they found the driver to be evasive about where the beer had been purchased. Upon investigation they found a total of 326 cases of beer, and the driver finally admitted that it had been purchased in Quebec for use at a wedding. Since this did not constitute "personal use" the driver was charged with unlawfully possessing liquor as well as driving an unsafe vehicle.

- An Australian woman faces three charges of murder and five of attempted murder after poisonous mushrooms were included in meals served to her husband and several of his relatives in her home.

News roundup, 2 Nov 2023

- In a worrying sign, fighting on the Israel-Lebanon border has escalated, as Hezbollah attacked several Israeli military targets and Israel retaliated. Things aren't looking too good in the West Bank either. Bahrain has recalled their ambassador from Israel. Some optimistic folks, such as Tony Klug, are pointing out that every move towards peace has followed some sort of dramatic event, but it's hard not to notice that those moves towards peace haven't gone anywhere. And in the US, students who sympathize with the Palestinians are clamming up about it, to avoid jeopardizing future career prospects. I can't say I blame them, especially given how little has been accomplished by people speaking out so far. In a world where, realistically speaking, not everyone's going to make it even with the best actions from here on in, you have to choose your battles. Israelis who speak out often have a hard time too.

- The Manitoba Nurses' Union has filed a grievance against Shared Health about the failure to ensure the safety of its members. Our biggest hospital, HSC, is in a rough neighbourhood; vehicle break-ins are common, as are violent attacks against staff.

- Winnipeg mayor Scott Gillingham is looking seriously at ending exclusionary zoning in order to get federal funding. Which would be a very good thing, but NIMBYs will go absolutely apeshit. I can't seem to find where I saw this (I think it was in a Facebook discussion a couple of years ago) but I've seen it claimed that in the older neighbourhoods of St Vital, it's gotten to the point where people who buy infill houses get the cold shoulder from their new neighbours. And you can be sure that these people (and their councillor, who despite his left-leaning background is all too receptive to their bleatings) will fight tooth and nail to stop it even if it means forgoing millions of federal dollars that the city badly needs.

- Years ago, when Culex quinquefasciatus (the mosquito species that transmits avian malaria) was introduced to Hawaii, an endemic group of songbirds, the Hawaiian honeycreepers, was decimated. Many species in the group were driven to extinction by this as well as other factors, while some survived by retreating farther up mountains where that mosquito can't survive. Unfortunately, thanks to climate change, the exclusion zone for the mosquitoes is shrinking, and this bodes ill for most of the surviving honeycreeper species. A couple of species seem to have developed a resistance to the disease, but they seem to be in the minority.

- Mark Carney says he hasn't ruled out running for the leadership of the federal Liberals. He hasn't committed to it either, of course; presumably he's waiting for Trudeau to crash and burn so he can swoop in as the saviour of the party.

- The thing about THC is that it stays detectable in your system far longer than the actual high. Happily, some progress is being made in detecting recent cannabis use, which is what would be the relevant factor for safety-related things such as driving.

- The city of Bunbury, Western Australia has been using children's music to discourage residentially challenged folks from hanging around some places. Some of the performers whose songs are being used this way are less than impressed.

News roundup, 1 Nov 2023

- The Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza has experienced a second day of bombing, killing at least 50 more people. Martin Griffiths, the UN's Emergency Relief Coordinator, characterized the attack as an "atrocity". Meanwhile another UN official, Craig Mokhiber, has stepped down after accusing Israel of genocide. He has apparently been "under review" since March over his social media posts; make of that what you will. Meanwhile, Gwynne Dyer figures that Netanyahu is in trouble no matter what the outcome of the conflict is; if doesn't manage to destroy Hamas, he's done for politically, but if he does, he no longer can credibly say that there's nobody to negotiate with on the Palestinian side, and a two-state solution might be on the table again. I'd like to think that last part is true but I suspect it may be wishful thinking.

- Meanwhile that other war is still very much going on as well, with the Russians subjecting over a hundred communities to intense bombardment. And the worst part of all this is that these wars are a distraction from the fact that climate change has the potential to make the wars in Ukraine and Gaza look like a picnic - not least because it will cause a whole bunch more conflicts. In fact it's already starting to do that.

- The MPI strike has been settled as workers voted to accept a new contract. Workers are expected to be back on the job Friday.

- Poland has managed to cobble together a non-crazy coalition government. This is very good news for Europe and the world. It remains to be seen if Hungary can be turned around in the same way; they just banned minors from attending this year's World Press Photo Exhibition in Budapest because one set of photos in the exhibit present LGBT people in a non-hateful way.

- A sometimes nasty tropical disease called leishmaniasis, caused by a parasite spread by small biting flies called sand flies, has turned up in Texas. The form of leishmaniasis in question is not usually fatal but can be disfiguring.

- A trucker who left the road after failing to stop at a railway crossing went into the ditch and then over the tracks, damaging the tracks and causing a derailment. He escaped with minor injuries, plus a $672 fine and serious offense notice for careless driving.

- The town of Littleton, New Hampshire, is split pretty much straight down the middle, politically. To avoid culture war issues, they are considering banning all public art following complaints about an LGBT-themed mural.

- A teacher in Florida (where else) was beaten into unconsciousness by a teenage student who took exception to her stopping him from playing his portable video game console in class.

News roundup, 31 Oct 2023

- Houthi rebels in Yemen have apparently joined the fray in Israel, attempting a drone attack on the city of Eilat. Meanwhile Israel has bombed a refugee camp in Gaza, killing over 50 people. For their part the Israelis say that there was a "very senior" Hamas commander in the area.

- Grim signs have been found at yet another former residential school, this one in Kenora.

- A picketer in the MPI strike was assaulted this morning; no official statement on motive, though some folks on Reddit are suggesting that the cause was more psychiatric than political. In other local labour news, Winnipeg Transit workers have voted to reject a temporary agreement.

- A technical consultant for an agriculture-related company, whose job involved driving to various agricultural facilities in BC's Lower Mainland, tried to take her employer to the province's Human Rights Tribunal for not properly accommodating what she claimed was a "contact high" from visiting a cannabis farm.

- The US Securities and Exchange Commission is preparing to roll out a climate disclosure rule, which would require publicly traded companies to report their greenhouse emissions. Sounds perfectly reasonable; even the banks are on board (presumably they know that there is a lot of potential liability looming, and they want to prepare for it). Predictably, rightwing populists are claiming (falsely) that individual farmers and ranchers would be impacted by this.

- The Biden administration has allocated $1.3 billion to improvements in the power grid. Such investments are very much needed in order to make the grid work properly with more renewables; in fact, limitations in the grid are already being blamed for policies that slow the deployment of solar and wind power.

- Lawyers for Steve Bannon, Rudy Giuliani, and Mike Lindell have withdrawn because their fees weren't being paid. Funny that Trump doesn't help them out with all the money he supposedly has.

- Norway has been very successful in switching over to electric cars; the problem is, though, that they're still cars. They are, however, looking to go further and try to actually reduce car use; it'll be an uphill battle though.

- GM is suspending their autonomous vehicle operations after their robotaxi division, Cruise, was ordered off the road in California for safety reasons.

- Researchers in the UK are developing robot guide dogs for blind folks. Hopefully they'll work better than GM's driverless cars.

- Facial recognition software is not always reliable, especially if you don't look like someone in Silicon Valley where the software tends to be trained. A guy in Detroit was wrongfully arrested because of this sort of thing.

- A rightwing TV host in France blamed Paris' bed bug outbreak on immigration, even as an actual pest control expert disagreed (tourism, as well as pesticide resistance, are at least as big a reason as immigration, but that presumably doesn't have the same "red meat" value to his viewers). Meanwhile, a post made to a French web forum a couple of years ago has resurfaced, in which the poster claimed to have caused the problem themselves by mailing bed bugs around the country. Hopefully this person is just a troll...

- Poutine magnate Ryan Smolkin has died following complications of a surgery. He started a chain of poutine restaurants, as well as founding the World Poutine Eating Championship (a participant in that competition once consumed almost 13 kilograms of poutine in 10 minutes). No word on what kind of surgery Smolkin was undergoing, but I'm guessing it was a coronary bypass.