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Tablets and smartwatches.. Why?
  • A tablet is nice because it's a bigger screen. I like reading ebooks on them. (plz don't tell me to get an e-reader)

    A watch is nice because it means you can ignore your phone, but still reply to notifications. I like the more accurate step count. I'd really like a device that counts my lengths when swimming too, but I haven't had a chance to use one yet.

    In both cases I've gotten devices that have more battery than I expect. I rarely found myself in a situation where charging was a hassle.

  • What was life like before Wikipedia?
  • I enjoy the "firestorm of criticism" bit. And

    On 9 March 1976 the US Federal Trade Commission entered an opinion and order enjoining Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. from using: a) deceptive advertising practices in recruiting sales agents and obtaining sales leads, and b) deceptive sales practices in the door-to-door presentations of its sales agents

  • What was life like before Wikipedia?
  • Everybody's like "Encarta" but before CD-ROMs etc, we had massive ass sets of encyclopedias. You'd actually have an encyclopedia subscription so they could send you errata for stuff that changed over time. Sort of like paper DLC for reality.

    It sucked.

    But pre-Internet it was fun to sit around and flip through the encyclopedias/dictionaries and read stuff. If you were lucky you'd find something sex-related.

  • Department in charge of Old Age Security doesn't know if payments are enough, auditor finds
  • Whenever I hear about the federal government engaging in a conspiracy to do X, I think of stuff like this. The culture of the bureaucracy does not promote beneficial outcomes, and the politicians see no reason to improve it.

  • Leftists can't shut out Young Men again.
  • If we talk to young men with empathy, and honesty and allow them to use their energy to fight the power in the way that THEY know how? This is where Leftists and Democrats specifically can easily make waves.

    ...

    Young men know when they are being patronized, and they know all too well when they are being looked down upon. This is how you lose them. You have to see them face to face.

  • Just curious but are we heading towards an "eat the rich" society?
  • Skimming through Wikipedia, most of the attacks seemed to focus on politicians, police, and (disproportionately) members of the public.

    A lot of the glee about the CEO murder is that his company's actions are indefensible, and, as CEO he is responsible for them. It's very difficult to say the same of the victims of the Years of Lead - many seem to be police, random members of the public, or other members of the same group. With the possible exception of some politicians, it's hard to see how the victims were responsible for much.

  • "We're gonna get this guy": Cops have 200 pics of Brian Thompson assassin as they give 5-word update
  • this will become the first public example of the state surveillance being used to protect our oligarchy from us

    This feels hyperbolic.

    The state protects the status quo, including whoever has money. I wouldn't limit it to surveillance. If we're just talking about the US, there's the Battle of Blair Mountain, all of COINTELPRO, Watergate (I think?), etc.

  • Ford says Trump's tariff threat 'like a family member stabbing you in the heart'

    > Doug Ford said Tuesday that U.S. president-elect Donald Trump's threat to slap a 25 per cent tariff on all Canadian goods is "like a family member stabbing you right in the heart."

    😂

    > "I want to emphasize, to compare us to Mexico is the most insulting thing I have ever heard from our friends and closest allies, the United States of America,"

    🤣

    It's the same shit Trump pulled in his first term. I'm shocked he would do it again.

    10
    What's a good quiet electric heater?

    I'm looking for an electric heater for my office. Ideally it'd be really quiet. The office is well insulated, so it doesn't need to get too hot.

    Can you recommend a brand and model?

    22
    Recipe app

    I remember someone posting a great Android recipe app a while ago, but I can't remember the name of it.

    The feature that caught my interest was being able to download a recipe from free form pages.

    Anyone got a suggestion?

    12
    A plan to strengthen OAS, help younger Canadians and reduce the deficit? Thanks, affluent boomers! - The Globe and Mail

    A motion from the Bloc will increase benefits for affluent retirees, to be paid for by younger (and poorer) Canadians. The advocacy group for Canadian seniors has proposed a much fairer alternative;

    > [Canadian Association of Retired Persons's proposal] would strengthen OAS, help younger Canadians, reduce the deficit and save Parliament. This would enable MPs to make the most significant improvement to generational fairness in the federal budget in my professional lifetime – rather than play political games by proroguing Parliament or launching an early election.

    ...

    > In my previous column, I costed out some options. The government could start to claw back OAS at an individual income threshold of $70,000 or a household income of $90,000. These alternatives would free up $12-billion and $48-billion, respectively, over the next five years.

    Original link: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/investing/personal-finance/young-money/article-a-plan-to-strengthen-oas-help-younger-canadians-and-reduce-the-deficit/

    0
    Real estate insolvencies in Canada set to surpass levels of global financial crisis
    www.theglobeandmail.com Real estate insolvencies in Canada set to surpass levels of global financial crisis

    More real estate developers face insolvency owing to high debt levels and construction costs as Canada is on track to reach about 240 real estate insolvencies this year

    Real estate insolvencies in Canada set to surpass levels of global financial crisis

    The federal Liberals and Conservatives want to "solve" the housing crisis by making it easier for builders to build new units.

    Sadly, with interest rates and construction prices at current levels, it seems unlikely that private companies will be able to provide the 3.5 million houses we need to restore affordability.

    We need all levels of government to start building housing, not just wait for white knights from the private sector to ride in and save our middle class dreams.

    > Residential property developers are facing rising insolvencies as they struggle with higher borrowing and construction costs – and industry experts warn the trend is likely to worsen as interest expenses remain elevated.

    ...

    > At this pace, Canada is on track to reach about 240 real estate insolvencies this year, which would be 57-per-cent higher than 2023 and 13-per-cent higher than 2009, when a wide swath of businesses ran into problems owing to the financial crisis and global recession.

    ...

    > And that does not include the number of developers and projects that have been forced into receivership for not paying bills. The Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy does not include receiverships with its publicly available bankruptcy statistics. However, insolvency experts say they are seeing more projects go into receivership.

    > So far this year, the real estate sector accounts for 55 per cent of the receiverships recorded by Insolvency Insider Canada, a website that tracks the largest insolvencies in the country. That compares to 30 per cent last year and 33 per cent in 2022.

    ...

    > Today, the cost of residential construction is 81-per-cent higher across Canada’s major cities compared to 2017 and more than double – up 107 per cent – in the Toronto region, according to Statscan data.

    29
    What's a word for collecting conversation starters?

    I try to collect conversation starters so I have things to talk about with people I like.

    Some of them are general and work on anyone, like: "I'm moving soon!" or "how was your weekend?" or "did you see that ludicrous display last night?". Others deal with shared interests or common friends, so they're person specific.

    What's a word to describe collecting conversation starters? Borrowing from other languages is legit.

    6
    Just got a call from the kids' daycare...

    ... some kid in the daycare has lice.

    We went through this a couple of years ago: one kid had a tonne of lice in his hair, my wife got infested and ended up shaving her head. The other kid and I lucked out.

    Regardless of what happens, we've got some short summer haircuts in our future.

    16
    Meanwhile, in cyberspace

    cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/15835822

    > Door of Durin by poppel > > https://teia.art/objkt/769117/listings

    0
    Facing a costly mortgage renewal, this family decided to downsize and instead saved thousands
    www.theglobeandmail.com Facing a costly mortgage renewal, this family decided to downsize and instead saved thousands

    Selling the four-bedroom family home they bought 10 years ago will save loads of money each month

    Facing a costly mortgage renewal, this family decided to downsize and instead saved thousands

    > The family is moving to find more financial flexibility. Owning their current home is a financial burden, and the stress would only get worse with a mortgage renewal coming up soon.

    ...

    > Proceeds from the sale plus a cash top-up will mean they can live mortgage-free in their new three-bedroom townhouse. Current mortgage costs are $3,965 per month. > > As well, Ms. Deane has estimated that her family will save on electricity, heating, insurance, property taxes and maintenance. Even with strata/condo fees of $710 per month at the new place, Ms. Deane calculates overall savings of $4,640 per month.

    Props to them for making a smart move.

    5
    Ottawa taxi lawsuit finds City negligent in allowing Uber to operate in 2014
    ottawa.ctvnews.ca 'A great victory for the industry': Taxi drivers celebrate ruling that found City of Ottawa negligent in allowing Uber to operate

    An Ontario Superior Court judge has ruled that the City of Ottawa was negligent in its enforcement of the city's taxi bylaw when it allowed Uber to begin operating in 2014, harming the city's established taxi industry.

    'A great victory for the industry': Taxi drivers celebrate ruling that found City of Ottawa negligent in allowing Uber to operate

    > "The evidence establishes that the City knew that its failure to properly enforce the 2012 Bylaw would likely cause harm to the taxi industry. > > "A multinational giant was invading Ottawa, and because of the City's unpreparedness and its lack of efforts to develop a plan to enforce the 2012 Bylaw, the City's enforcement efforts against Uber drivers were ineffective."

    17
    Could nurse practitioners fill the primary care gap?
    www.theglobeandmail.com Could nurse practitioners fill the primary care gap?

    More than 6.5 million Canadians are without a family doctor. Some would like to see nurse practitioners step in to ease the crisis in primary care

    Could nurse practitioners fill the primary care gap?

    > Nurse practitioners could help fill the void, advocates for the profession say, if more provinces would adopt policies to integrate them into primary care and pay them fairly for their work. Some physicians’ organizations have pushed back against that approach, arguing that NPs don’t have as much training or education as family doctors and therefore should only be funded publicly when they’re embedded in interdisciplinary teams with MDs.

    Aren't these the same organizations that have been dragging their feet on recognizing foreign credentials?

    I've been seeing a nurse practitioner for the last couple of years. So far, she's provided the same level of care I'm used to from family doctors: prescriptions, forwarding me to specialists when appropriate, providing the usual advice during checkups. It's fine.

    https://archive.is/PkAdd

    Edit: took out my grumbly summary, since our healthcare spending seems to be middle of the pack, compared to peer countries.

    25
    The Canadian State Is Euthanizing Its Poor and Disabled
    jacobin.com The Canadian State Is Euthanizing Its Poor and Disabled

    Canada boasts one of the world’s highest assisted-death rates, supposedly enabling the terminally ill to die with dignity. However, this suicide program increasingly resembles a dystopian replacement for care services, exchanging social welfare for euthanasia.

    The Canadian State Is Euthanizing Its Poor and Disabled

    > In 2022, Global News said the quiet part out loud: poverty is driving disabled Canadians to consider MAiD. Those “some” who are driven to assisted death because of poverty or an inability to access adequate care deserve to live with dignity and with the resources they need to live as they wish. They should never, ever feel the pressure to choose to die because our social welfare institutions are starved and our health care system has been vandalized through years of austerity and poor management. > > Given the way our institutions and economic and political elite create and perpetuate poverty in Canada, particularly among disabled people, we should be particularly sensitive to the implications of the country’s MaiD regime for those who are often ignored when warning about the dangers of the law.

    ...

    > While MAiD may be defensible as a means for individuals to exercise personal choice in how they live and how they die when facing illness and pain, it is plainly indefensible when state-induced austerity and mismanagement leads to people choosing to end their lives that have been made unnecessarily miserable. In short, we are killing people for being poor and disabled, which is horrifying.

    9
    Anyone else doing the Loblaws boycott?

    Is anyone else boycotting Loblaws? I don't have many alternatives, but I'm doing my best to take my business elsewhere.

    43
    How TD Bank got caught up in the global drug war, helping to launder hundreds of millions of dollars
    www.theglobeandmail.com How TD Bank got caught up in the global drug war, helping to launder hundreds of millions of dollars

    U.S. authorities believe the criminal ring laundered US$653-million between 2016 and 2021

    How TD Bank got caught up in the global drug war, helping to launder hundreds of millions of dollars

    US regulators have found evidence that TD's anti-money laundering fraud detection is insufficient

    > For months, analysts have predicted a fine in the range of US$500-million to US$1-billion, but that’s now jumped. “We believe cumulative fines could easily hit $2-billion,” Mr. Dechaine wrote.

    Meanwhile, in Canada, TD is facing record fines (archive) from Canadian regulators.

    https://archive.is/e0SGA

    5
    Teenager finds ‘holy grail’ Lego octopus from 1997 spill off Cornwall coast
    www.theguardian.com Teenager finds ‘holy grail’ Lego octopus from 1997 spill off Cornwall coast

    Boy discovers octopus figurine that fell from cargo ship along with 5m other Lego pieces during storm

    Teenager finds ‘holy grail’ Lego octopus from 1997 spill off Cornwall coast

    > The octopus is one of nearly 5m Lego pieces that fell into the sea in 1997 when a storm hit a cargo ship 20 miles off Land’s End, Cornwall. While 352,000 pairs of flippers, 97,500 scuba tanks, and 92,400 swords went overboard, the octopuses are considered the most prized finds as only 4,200 were onboard.

    21
    OCDSB shouldn't ax Early French Immersion
    ottawacitizen.com Côté: OCDSB shouldn't ax Early French Immersion

    Almost 70 per cent of families enrol their children in the Early French Immersion program.

    Côté: OCDSB shouldn't ax Early French Immersion

    The Ottawa Carleton District Schoolboard is winding up to drop early French immersion.

    wtf

    3
    Ottawa’s plan for a (very limited) increase in the capital gains tax? It’s a start
    www.theglobeandmail.com Opinion: Ottawa’s plan for a (very limited) increase in the capital gains tax? It’s a start

    There are lots of third rails in Canadian politics. Since governments won’t dare to go there, Tony Keller will

    Opinion: Ottawa’s plan for a (very limited) increase in the capital gains tax? It’s a start

    > Let’s start with one of the highest-voltage [third rails] in federal politics: Old Age Security. > > OAS only begins to be clawed back once a senior’s income exceeds $91,000. And payments aren’t zeroed out until income hits $148,000 – or $154,000 for those 75 and older. Senior couples earning a quarter-million dollars a year, and living mortgage-free, are getting cheques from younger and (much) lower-income taxpayers. > > That has to be fixed. The OAS threshold should be lowered – to, say, $60,000 – and the clawback sharpened, with benefits tapping out at $100,000.

    ...

    > End the capital-gains exemption for principal residences. It’s even more untouchable than OAS. It’s also more economically harmful and inequitable. > > It pumps up housing prices and pushes more and more national wealth into housing. It’s dumb economics, plus the tax break only goes to the two-thirds of families who own a home. And the richer you are, and the more home you own, the bigger the tax break. It adds up to a hyper-regressive policy to make Canada less productive.

    ...

    > Let’s restore the two percentage points of Goods and Services Tax the Harper government cut. Our tax system is too tilted to income taxes, and away from taxes on consumption. And the cut to the GST costs Ottawa about $20-billion a year. > > If the GST were raised, some of the proceeds could beef up the tax credit for low-income Canadians.

    There's some good stuff in there.

    https://archive.is/GDzQG

    12
    How a ballooning public sector is reshaping Canada’s economy
    www.theglobeandmail.com How a ballooning public sector is reshaping Canada’s economy

    The number of workers in Canada’s public sector has soared in recent years, outpacing the private sector, but economists warn the growth of government jobs is not sustainable in the long run

    How a ballooning public sector is reshaping Canada’s economy

    Interesting article on growth in public sector jobs over the past decade. What I got from it: lots of people were hired during the pandemic to handle pandemic-related initiatives; aside from that, lots of people were hired in general; governments appear to hire in times of economic uncertainty (e.g. growth under Harper during 2008+); federal unions argue staffing levels are returning to "normal".

    But the killer is the last section where the author tries to figure out if we're getting value for money. The answer is short and sour: Canadians don't think so, and internal targets aren't being met.

    > Are Canadians getting bang for their taxpayer buck? > > ... One way to gauge that is through surveys, which doesn’t leave Canada looking good relative to its international peers. The OECD polls residents at its member countries on their satisfaction with public services such as health care and education, and between 2017 and 2022, Canada experienced the largest decline in satisfaction among G7 countries for education (from 73 to 67 per cent) while the drop in health care satisfaction matched that of the United Kingdom, but to the lowest level in the G7 (from 69 to 56 per cent). > > ... The share of respondents who said their provincial government had done a “good” or “very good” job fell overall from close to half in the first quarter of 2019 to 30 per cent at the end of 2023. Both B.C. and Quebec, two provinces that have seen public-sector job growth rise particularly quickly, registered some of the worst declines. > > ... the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) reviewed four years of results reports to see how the government measured up against nearly 3,000 performance targets it had set for itself. The assessments weren’t promising. For fiscal 2021-22, roughly 25 per cent of targets were not met, up from 20 per cent in 2018-19. But that didn’t capture the full scale of the performance shortfall. One-tenth of performance targets included no information on results, while another one-third stated results would be achieved at some point in the future.

    Yeah, that mixes provincial services with federal ones.

    https://archive.is/m0qtc

    12
    What do dystopias look like in 2024?

    What's the next wave of dystopia in popular culture?

    I think the classic CRTs, mirrorshades, and black synthleather look of cyberpunk doesn't really work with our expectations in 2024.

    In the 70s and 80s, we expected acid rain, ozone holes, and lawlessness to fill our future, as companies took over from (relatively) responsible governments and civility/civilization collapsed. The outfit fit with that: keep the burning rain and sun off, while protecting against looters and raiders. Meanwhile, writers didn't see how technology would shrink and get better.

    In 2024 we expect our dystopia to be hot: the world is heating up, so black synthleather is out. Maybe mirrorshades stick around. Corporations aren't taking over any more, governments are becoming corrupt/evil (e.g. Hunger Games). And technology is tinsy tiny, verging on invisible.

    I'm thinking of the Hunger Games and Upload. (And the first five episodes of Fallout)

    9
    Feds announce $1.5b to expand affordable housing
    www.theglobeandmail.com How rental-protection funds can help stem a vanishing supply of affordable units

    Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announces creation of $1.5-billion rental protection fund to help non-profits buy affordable rental apartments when they go up for sale

    How rental-protection funds can help stem a vanishing supply of affordable units

    It's good to see some kinda/sorta/almost direct spending on affordable housing being announced:

    > Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the creation of a $1.5-billion rental protection fund that will provide a combination of loans and grants to help non-profits buy affordable rental apartments when they go up for sale.

    It's nowhere near enough, but it's better than the neoliberal tHe FrEe MaRkEt WiLl SaVe Us shoveling that both the Liberals and Conservatives have been pushing.

    The article explains how the number of homes affordable to people making $30k annually is crashing across the country (but less so in Quebec).

    https://archive.is/ocuud

    18
    InitialsDiceBearhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/„Initials” (https://github.com/dicebear/dicebear) by „DiceBear”, licensed under „CC0 1.0” (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)SB
    sbv @sh.itjust.works
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