I, for one, am a fan of bringing back the ascot. (but perhaps not during the height of the summer months.)

I understand where you’re coming from, but, to put it plainly, this show is not meant for you. Media reflects the times; Enterprise is the way it was because of 9/11. Academy is for the young people of today who have grown up in and are facing an increasingly bleak and hostile future. They will have to fight for a better future, because the one that is being handed to them is a dumpster fire. A show that shows them a better future is attainable and models how to do it is what they need, not a fantasy that is unobtainable.

It’s possible for the switch behind the knob to fail. They’re called selector switches or rotary switches (https://duckduckgo.com/?q=stove+rotary+switch). In my case, some plastic from the casing melted and became a conductor, so the element could not be turned down or turned off. This is also an easy replacement.

Turn off the breaker, unplug from outlet, open up the back of the stove/oven (take a pic or mark the wires to remember where they go), remove the offending switch and look for a model number on it so you can search for and order a replacement online. All I needed was a phillips screwdriver. You can still use the rest of the stove top elements without the broken switch until your replacement arrives.

ICE is even killing white American citizens in broad daylight while being recorded. You’re right that they should be recognizing treaties, but we should also be recognizing the reality that that’s something beyond America’s grasp right now, and that no one, but especially “exception” cases who are visibly non-white, should be going to the US for their own safety.

In-person only voting. If any party member from across the entire country couldn’t make it to Calgary in person on a weekday, they couldn’t vote.

I understand what you mean, but life is not binary and it doesn’t have to always be all-in. “Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.” We can still enjoy good things and incremental improvements even if they’re not perfect or ideal. A tool doesn’t have to be perfect for 100% of situations for it to still be useful.

Obviously, you don’t care for the device, and I’m not trying to convince you to get something you don’t want—and I note you haven’t tried. But I am saying we should (in life, in general) consider options for improvements even if they’re not perfect.

I can clear a double driveway with an electric shovel/snow thrower. It depends on the battery and, of course, the length of the driveway. But we’re taking Brampton, not an estate house.

The thing is you have to do it before the snow is higher than the face of the shovel, so you might have to go out twice or even three times (while it’s still snowing and once when it’s done) instead of only doing one pass at the end with a significantly larger snow blower.

There are other shortcomings compared to a snow blower, such as it only throws the snow in front of itself; you can’t direct it otherwise. So you have to think about how you’re going to physically do the task. Also, I find it’s not as effective when the snow is wet.

Overall, though, if a snow blower is not feasible for whatever reason, it’s a decent option for lessening the physical burden of snow shoveling, but definitely not eliminating it.

Around two or three years ago, I was on a sales call/app demo as a potential customer–not for TikTok, of course. It’s an American company and I’m based in Canada. I asked the sales guy about their data storage, encryption, privacy, and the like; he didn’t know. I said I needed to know that if our group uses the application to communicate internally about, for example, helping refugees, the government won’t be able to access it. The guy asked me if that really was a concern.

Well, you tell me now, sales guy, is it really a concern?

Turning off the targeted ads settings indeed prevents Google from showing you overtly targeted ads. It makes no claim that it prevents Google from harvesting the same data that is used to target ads

WestJet only reversing it because word started to get around and people were swearing never to fly WestJet again. If there were no possible alternatives for flyers, they would not have cared.

Your thinking wasn’t wrong, the problem was that the municipal and provincial police and governments abdicated their duties and abandoned their citizens. The federal government stepped in because the lower levels of government refused to do their duty for weeks. I don’t disagree that Trudeau stepped a foot beyond his jurisdiction, but in that scenario, he was being the only responsible adult who actively cared about the well-being of Canadians.

I’m glad it was done, and there was nothing in the execution that was heavy-handed or otherwise untoward. The people had more than ample warning to disperse, the line moved slowly (giving the people every opportunity to leave of their own volition), force was restrained and minimal. People got arrested because at that point they made the choice to be. It certainly was not the situation we currently see unfolding in the US right now (which, if we are honest, the convoyers would have wanted for their side to perpetuate, if they could).

I watched every episode, all the seasons. It does get better over time, and the last season is the best of them (imo). I feel like they started to actually figure themselves out by the last season, but I’d still say it was okay, not “good”. I think I would have liked a sixth season to see if it would have become “good”.

If we think of Discovery as a drama show that’s about people’s relationships that happens to be set in a sci-fi universe, I guess it’s an okay show. It’s just not what Trek or sci-fi fans want: sci-fi. Was it a good choice to make that kind of show? Well, you know, I wouldn’t necessarily say “no”, but I don’t think it should have been “Star Trek”. You can have drama shows in space, just call it something else. Trek as a franchise has a certain level of expectation, and disappointment exists in the gap between expectation and reality.

There were Jews for Hitler. These people really think they’re “one of the good ones”. They’re just useful labour until the labour part is done, then they’ll get tossed in with the rest of the Jews/Hispanics.

Historically, the mongers of violence and war have only been ended by stronger violence and better war strategies and resources. The whole take the higher road and tolerance thing is what got America into this current mess in the first place. These assholes are cowards and only come out when there are no consequences, but go back into hiding when there are.

People should not be punched in the nose for their race, religion, sexuality, gender, etc., basically who they are. People should be punched in the noise for being assholes, their bad behaviour.

Ask your doc to check for it with you bloodwork. Its just one more vial/tube of blood to be drawn.

I thought I understood this as a Canadian until this current World Series. “My team good, your team bad.” Then I saw comments from the fanbases of the teams that the Blue Jays faced, and now I understand that people are absolutely deranged. Calling for violence for opposing players for daring to face their team? Yikes.

And this is literally just a game. It doesn’t actually have a bearing on people’s lives in the long term. (Except the actual teams, I guess.) No wonder American politics is the way it is. Unfortunately, parts of Canada are trying to emulate this here, too.

DefinitelyVaccinated adults should get their immunity checked, its possible to lose immunity over decades (I did).

Why should Canada Post be a corporation at all? It is legally managed to serve all Canadians. Corporations otherwise are not legally required to serve this or that place or demographic. Yet Canada Post must deliver to as far as Grise Fiord. It cannot be profitable while legally obligated to service extremely unprofitable regions. It can either serve all Canadians as a service, or be a real corporation that can make decisions like target demographics and operations, but not both.

(To be clear, I think everyone deserves mail service, including the people of Grise Fiord, so it should be a service and not a corp.)

Libraries are indeed targets of malware and ransomware. In Ontario, at least Toronto, Hamilton, and London public libraries have been ransomwared. The idea is nice, but I think the risk would be too high for libraries with increasingly slashed budgets. Even with an air-gapped system doing the formatting, I can’t imagine library IT devoting the time to do this.

From the article:

The answer to how I became sick may lie in what’s called secondary vaccine failure, which happens when a vaccinated person’s immunity decreases over time until they are no longer protected. This can take place when an immune system doesn’t receive the “boost” it needs from encountering the virus.

“There is evidence to suggest that in the absence of these boosts, the immune response that is induced by the vaccine isn’t lasting as long,” said Janna Shapiro, a postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for Vaccine Preventable Diseases in Toronto. That means even those who were fully vaccinated as kids can lose their immunity.

This was me. I was at the doctor and he was having me get some bloodwork done. I asked him to check my measles immunity status, too, because I’d previously seen online of the possibility mentinoed above. My parents did have me immunized when I was a child, but I thought why not check? The results: I had no immunity.

It was free (to me, the patient) to get the shots. My doctor had to order them in. It’s two shots a month apart, and then another blood draw another month later to check. I’ll be honest, it was the second most painful vaccination I’ve ever had (the first was shingles), but totally worth it. Ask your doctor to check the next time you’re getting bloodwork done.