 |
| Visual aid for the reading impaired. "It's dead, Jim." |
Yet another Big Corporate dude explains why we are all stupid, and why we need to listen to him. Dan Amman, CEO of Cruise the self-driving-car division of General Motors:
Imagine if someone invented a new transportation system and said, "I've designed a new way of getting around: It's powered by fossil fuels that will pollute our air. It will congest our cities to the point of inciting rage in its users. Its human operators will be fallible, killing 40,000 Americans — and more than a million people around the world — every year. Most of the time, the equipment will sit unused, occupying prime real estate and driving up housing costs. If you're young, old, or living with a disability, then you can't use it. And for those who can, the privilege will cost $9,000 a year and suck up two years of your life."
You'd say, "You're crazy." And yet, here we are, living in a state of cognitive dissonance with exactly this — the human-driven, gasoline-powered, single-occupant car — as our primary mode of transportation.
President Donald J. Trump was impeached on Wednesday.For the third time in the nation's history, the House of Representatives voted to impeach a sitting president, acting after a daylong debate on whether Trump violated his oath in pressuring Ukraine to damage a political opponent.Trump was impeached on two articles. The first vote, 230-197, accused him of abuse of power and was almost entirely on party lines; it was followed quickly by a second, 229-198, vote accusing the president of obstructing Congress. The one-vote difference was that of Democrat Jared Golden of Maine, who voted yes on abuse of power and no on obstruction.No Republicans voted against Trump. Two Democrats, Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, who is expected to switch parties soon, and Collin Peterson of Minnesota, voted with Republicans against both articles. One Democrat, Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who is running for president, voted "present" on both articles.
 |
| "This is going to hurt, bro." |
The climate crisis is like a world war. So let's talk about rationing
It's time for mandatory cutbacks on the kinds of consumption that threaten all of us
Eleanor Boyle is a Vancouver-based writer. She is the author of High Steaks: Why and How to Eat Less Meat and the forthcoming book Mobilize Food! Wartime Inspiration for Environmental Victory Today.
It's too bad meat is so tasty, driving so convenient and airline travel so desirable. Because those all create large amounts of greenhouse gases and worsen the climate crisis. We know it, and some of us feel guilty getting on a plane, hopping in the car or eating burgers. But how are we to cut back when we're not sure what level of a high-emission behaviour is sustainable – and when everyone else is doing it?
Some environmental activists and leaders suggest we should practice moderation, take the bus, eat veggie burgers. But voluntary measures just can't deliver when the problem is this big and time is so short. That's why it may be time for mandatory cutbacks on the kinds of consumption that threaten all of us.
It may be time for rationing.
The Oklahoma City University police manhunt that went viral after being reported on by National File in October resulted in the expulsion and police interrogation of a student activist on Dec. 9.
An update from The Oklahoman stated that the student was tracked down, expelled and interrogated by OKC police for placing the flyers.Federal law prevented the student from being doxxed by university officials.
OCU Police director Bill Citty explained his reasoning for the Orwellian police investigation: "The reason you look into those types of things is you want to make sure the individual is not a threat to other students." Citty did not explain how "it's OK to be white" could possibly be a "threat" to students.
The OCU police department reportedly partnered with the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force to locate and interrogate the student activist.
Action was taken to address an anti-Semitic incident at York University which was called unacceptable by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Premier Doug Ford and Mayor John Tory.
But it was not the action that was expected.
Following an aggressive attempt to interrupt a pro-Israel event, York University has suspended Students Against Israeli Apartheid from operating on campus, pending a review.
But the university also informed the host of the Nov. 20 event, Herut Canada, it's privileges — such as hosting events on campus — are being pulled.
"The preliminary internal review has led us to conclude that a more immediate intervention is needed with both Herut Zionism and Students Against Israel Apartheid (SAIA)," said a letter sent to both groups by the university.
University spokesman Yanni Dagonas explained they "did not make this decision lightly but we recognize the holding of certain events at this time could lead to further tensions."
After "facilitated mediation that would establish mutually agreed upon processes for future events" the university is confident it will be able to restore "the withdrawn privileges," said Dagonas.
 |
| Deleted by DC Comics because Beijing didn't like it. |
DC Comics teased Frank Miller's upcoming The Dark Knight Returns: The Golden Child on social media this month --- the sequel comic releasing in December -- using artwork by Rafael Grampá, only to remove the promo posts shortly afterwards, following backlash from vocal readers in China.
The issue here revolves around the variant cover featured in the posts, which depicts Carrie Kelly as Batwoman, hurling a Molotov cocktail against a backdrop that included text reading, "The Future is Young." Those opposing the artwork claimed that it implies DC Comics' support for the protesters in Hong Kong, largely owing to Batwoman's outfit and pose and their resemblance to the general aesthetic of Hong Kong protesters.
But the poster came under fire from Chinese internet users who contended that it contained coded messages in support of Hong Kong's pro-democracy protests. They said that the Molotov cocktail alluded to young Hong Kong protesters' more violent tactics, that the "dark knight's" choice of black attire referred to the black-clad Hong Kong protesters, and that the "golden child" of the book's title was a veiled reference to the color yellow, which was taken up by previous pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong five years ago.
China is a critical market for Warner Bros., which owns DC Entertainment and DC Comics, its publishing subsidiary. "Aquaman" broke Chinese box office records last December to take in a cumulative $292 million, while "Shazam!" made $43.8 million in April.
"I don't worship at the altar of hockey. I never have," Allen said, "and maybe it's because of where I grew up and going to a couple of different universities. There's a certain type of person in my mind, in my experience, who does."
Allen continued saying, "And they all tended to be white boys who weren't, let's say, very nice. They were not generally thoughtful. They were often bullies."
"Their parents were able to afford to put them, you know, spend $5,000 a year on minor hockey." Allen suggests that the money would be better suited to travelling and learning about the world.
She concluded her statements saying that Don Cherry is a "representative" of the type of person that Allen is talking about. Allen acknowledged that Cherry has "done some good things" but added
"Whether he's charming or not, but he's still a bigot and a misogynist."
CTV says it is apologizing to anyone who was offended by comments made by a correspondent on its show The Social following the firing of hockey commentator Don Cherry.As apologies go, its very legal boilerplate. Bottom line, -real- racism gets a pass, Jess Allen keeps her job, Don Cherry still very fired.
“CTV’s The Social is based on opinion and debate about current issues, and we often hear from viewers who don’t agree with some of the perspectives on the show.However, Jessica Allen’s comments about hockey have generated an extraordinary response. We’ve been touched by the stories we’ve heard from Canadians everywhere, including families from Humboldt, about what the game means to them. That matters to us.We would like to apologize to everyone who was offended by the remarks, and let you know your feedback sparked much debate and introspection at The Social and CTV. We won’t restrict our hosts from offering their opinions on an opinion show, but we’ll always listen to viewers when they offer theirs.”
The latest figures from Health Canada showed that as of March 31, while monthly sales of dried cannabis amounted to 7,627 kilograms, there was 30,802 kilograms of finished inventory and 143,773 kilograms of unfinished inventory in the system.
Meanwhile, BMO Capital Markets analysts Tamy Chen and Peter Sklar on Wednesday warned that some "unfinished inventory," defined as cannabis that is not packaged, labelled or ready for sale, may not be deemed as "not competitive" for sale on the market, based on discussions with licensed producers.
Insects and spiders are declining in forests and grasslands across Germany, according to new research.
Scientists have described the findings as "alarming", saying the losses are driven by intensive agriculture.
They are calling for a "paradigm shift" in land-use policy to preserve habitat for the likes of butterflies, bugs and flying insects
Recent studies have reported widespread declines in insect populations around the world.
The latest analysis, published in the journal, Nature, confirms that some insect species are being pushed down the path to extinction.
It is becoming clearer and clearer that the drivers of insect decline are related to farming practices, said Dr Sebastian Seibold of the Technical University of Munich in Freising, Germany.
"Our study confirms that insect decline is real - it might be even more widespread then previously thought considering, for example, that also forests are experiencing declines in insect populations," he told BBC News.
"I think it's alarming to see that such a decline happens not only in intensively-managed areas but also in protected areas - so the sites that we think are safeguarding our biodiversity are not really working anymore."
Asthma carbon footprint 'as big as eating meat'
Making the swap would have as big an "eco" impact as turning vegetarian or becoming an avid recycler, they say.
It's because some inhalers release greenhouse gases linked to global warming.
There are more than five million people with asthma in the UK.
The research looked at the environmental impact of different inhaler medications prescribed to patients on the NHS in England.
In 2017, about 50 million inhalers were prescribed. Seven out of every 10 of them were metered-dose inhalers - the type that contain greenhouse gases.
The gas - hydrofluoroalkane - is used as a propellant to squirt the medicine out of the inhaler.
Metered-dose inhalers account for nearly 4% of NHS greenhouse gas emissions, according to experts.
 |
| Funny that this wasn't on the news. |
Thousands of farmers in their tractors have taken to the streets of Germany, protesting the government's environmentalist agenda and the climate of hostility that agriculture faces from urban eco-warriors.
On Tuesday, farmers across Germany led 'tractor parades' into the nation's cities.
According to the German newspaper Die Welt, some 2,000 tractors descended upon the city of Bonn, and thousands of farmers took the same path in Hanover, Munich, Berlin, and Hamburg.
Organized by a group called 'Land Creates Connection', the farmers demanded not only a say in the formation of agricultural and environmental policies but also respect from the public who rely on the fruits of their labor.
 |
| Sea of tractors that did NOT get permission to be there. |
American burger chain Red Robin says it will be closing all of its Alberta stores by Dec. 8.
Global News has spoken to all five locations the company currently operates in the Edmonton area and each location confirmed they have been told they will be shut down by that date.
A previous location in the city on 112 Street and 104 Avenue also closed earlier in the year.
The company, known for its bottomless fries and expansive burger choices, currently has a total of 17 Canadian locations. The other 12 stores operate in British Columbia.
 |
| Tommy Chong is so happy! |
More than a year has passed since Bloomberg Businessweek grabbed the lapels of the cybersecurity world with a bombshell claim: that Supermicro motherboards in servers used by major tech firms, including Apple and Amazon, had been stealthily implanted with a chip the size of a rice grain that allowed Chinese hackers to spy deep into those networks. Apple, Amazon, and Supermicro all vehemently denied the report. The NSA dismissed it as a false alarm. The Defcon hacker conference awarded it two Pwnie Awards, for "most overhyped bug" and "most epic fail." And no follow-up reporting has yet affirmed its central premise.
But even as the facts of that story remain unconfirmed, the security community has warned that the possibility of the supply chain attacks it describes is all too real. The NSA, after all, has been doing something like it for years, according to the leaks of whistle-blower Edward Snowden. Now researchers have gone further, showing just how easily and cheaply a tiny, tough-to-detect spy chip could be planted in a company's hardware supply chain. And one of them has demonstrated that it doesn't even require a state-sponsored spy agency to pull it off—just a motivated hardware hacker with the right access and as little as $200 worth of equipment.
With only a $150 hot-air soldering tool, a $40 microscope, and some $2 chips ordered online, Elkins was able to alter a Cisco firewall in a way that he says most IT admins likely wouldn't notice, yet would give a remote attacker deep control."We think this stuff is so magical, but it's not really that hard," says Elkins, who works as "hacker in chief" for the industrial-control-system security firm FoxGuard. "By showing people the hardware, I wanted to make it much more real. It's not magical. It's not impossible. I could do this in my basement. And there are lots of people smarter than me, and they can do it for almost nothing."
Elkins used an ATtiny85 chip, about 5 millimeters square, that he found on a $2 Digispark Arduino board; not quite the size of a grain of rice, but smaller than a pinky fingernail. After writing his code to that chip, Elkins desoldered it from the Digispark board and soldered it to the motherboard of a Cisco ASA 5505 firewall. He used an inconspicuous spot that required no extra wiring and would give the chip access to the firewall's serial port.
Reducing emissions from driving has been a big challenge, said Conor Gately, who led the project mapping CO2 on America's roads as a postdoctoral researcher at Boston University. Emissions dipped during the recession of the late 2000s, but have been ticking back up since 2013.
National fuel economy standards put in place under the Obama administration have helped temper the rise in automotive emissions because the rules require cars and trucks to use less gasoline per mile traveled. But even as vehicles have become more efficient, Americans, buoyed by a strong economy and low gas prices, have been driving more miles and buying more S.U.V.s and pickup trucks, which have lower gas mileage. Freight trucking is also on the rise.
The Trump administration is expected to finalize a rollback of efficiency standards for passenger vehicles this month, a move that could significantly increase future emissions from America's cars and trucks.
To create their database, Boston University researchers used federal traffic data to calculate the number of miles travelled on local segments of each road in the United States and converted those miles to carbon dioxide emissions by estimating how much fuel is consumed by different types of vehicles using those roads.
An additional New York Times analysis used Boston University's on-road CO2 data and population figures from the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Census Bureau to derive total and per capita emissions for each metropolitan area.
The Chinese Communist Party has razed dozens of Uighur Muslim cemeteries in western Xinjiang province to create more "civilized" areas, the Agence-France Presse (AFP) reported on Wednesday.
China has taken over Uighur burial rites and replaced them with Communist Party-controlled cremations staged in "burial management centers" that ban religious activity surrounding the handling of a person's remains. Uighur locals and activists have accused China of attempting to erase the ethnic minority's history and uproot them from their ancestral home.
The destruction of Uighur graveyards is not new. The Print reported in July that the Communist Party began rapidly constructing "burial management centers" throughout the region after destroying at least three cemeteries in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang. One was turned into an "ecological" park; Chinese authorities have also used a green agenda as an excuse to eradicate Uighur holy sites.
In Hotan, another major Xinjiang city, the Csehine regime razed a 1000-year-old cemetery holding the remains of several historic figures, including Muslim crusaders from the late second millennium who brought the religion to western China.The Communist Party has also built thousands of concentration camps in Xinjiang holding millions of Uighurs – and used the camps to excuse the replacement of private burials with "burial management centers," arguing that they are necessary because not enough young men remain free from the concentration camps to help carry bodies and perform burial rites.
A lawsuit, backed by President Donald Trump's administration, had challenged Harvard's use of race in determining admissions, part of a decades-old push to boost minority enrolments at America's oldest university.
Federal Judge Allison Dale Burroughs said in a long-awaited decision that while Harvard's admissions process is not perfect, it was right, for now, to factor in race to form a diverse student body.
"The rich diversity at Harvard and other colleges and universities and the benefits that flow from that diversity will foster the tolerance, acceptance and understanding that will ultimately make race-conscious admissions obsolete," she said.
The case was filed in 2014 by Students for Fair Admissions, a group led by conservative white activist Edward Blum, who previously attacked the affirmative action policies at the University of Texas.
 |
| Gives a new meaning to the phrase "sewer dweller." |
They're called OPod Tube Houses and literally consist of reclaimed bits of industrial piping renovated inside with other left over pieces from building sites to make them into micro apartments.
"Constructed out of low cost and readily available 2.5m diameter concrete water pipe, the design utilizes the strong concrete structure to house a micro-living apartment for one/two persons," states a promo for the product. "OPod Tube Houses can be stacked to become a low rise building and a modular community in a short time, and can also be located/relocated to different sites in the city."
The pods are placed on spare bits of land and stacked on top of each other, allowing people to live their dream of being a human ant in a colony.
The sewer pipes are becoming more widespread in Hong Kong, where the cost of living is prohibitively expensive, but expect to see the trend transfer to the west very soon.
Comic book icon Lois Lane is making a return in a new 12-issue series from DC comics.
In the series, "Enemy of the People," the character reprises her role as a hard charging reporter for the Daily Planet, her newspaper in the DC universe.
This time around, Lane is covering the White House, where she gets into a combative exchange with a White House press secretary, is ejected from the briefing room and has her press pass revoked.
In the first issue, Lane is in the other DC universe, the District of Columbia, grilling a fictional White House press secretary on whether her administration is monetizing the separation of children from their families at the U.S. border.
"I've seen criticism saying, 'I don't read comics to see what's going on in the real world.' Too bad. It's called art. And it has to reflect what's happening around us," Rucka says. "I don't think you can tell an honest story about Lois if you're not reflecting the state of journalism and also hostility to journalism in the world today. The danger in telling truth to power and the fear that power has of truth being told, is in and of itself, a worthy story."
Ontario Cannabis Retail Corp. lost $42 million in the latest fiscal year, according to newly released public documents.
The provincial Crown corporation tasked with online sales and wholesale distribution of recreational pot reported revenues of $64 million for the year ended March 31, 2019.
However, Ontario's consolidated financial statements show the OCRC, which operates as the Ontario Cannabis Store, racked up expenses totaling $106 million during the period.
 |
| Twin Towers on Sept. 11th 2001 from the ISS. |
Leprosy cases are emerging in Los Angeles County, according to a recent study revealed in a Reuters Health report and its co-author Dr. Maria Teresa Ochoa of Keck Medical Center of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles told Reuters Health that she's urging the public to "fight the stigma."
Fandom, Entitlement and Toxicity By Hampus Eckerman: On the second day of the Dublin 2019 Worldcon, I went to a panel with the promising name of "With fans like these, who needs enemies?" I hadn't really read the description, instead going by the idea that it might have something to do with fans sucking the energy out of convention organizers, whether caused by anger, entitlement or a sincere wish to help. Instead it was about how fans made life miserable for creators with George Lucas and Star Wars fandom as the prime example. Most of the panel was about the big media phenomena in SFF, Star Wars, Star Trek and GoT, but there was also an interesting discussion on why Doctor Who fandom hadn't reached the same levels of toxicity.
My first understanding of my own potential for toxicity was with the infamous Spider-Man storyline "One More Day". For you that have never heard of it, the basic plot is as follows: Spider-Man married Mary Jane in 1987. This changed the dynamics of the comic. There was no longer the possibility to add soap elements of romance to the story, Spider-Man being too much of Goody Two-Shoes to be unfaithful. Killing Mary Jane would have caused an outrage, a divorce would still have left the dynamic. And that was not the only problem. Spider-Man had given up his secret identity in the Civil War-storyline, thus even more limiting the possibilities for writing a traditional story. So the decision was made in 2007, some 20 years later, to make a drastic change: Mephisto would for some flimsy reason magic Spider-Man so he wasn't married, his identity had never been revealed, and a lot of stuff was retconned for no apparent reason, such as Harry Osbourne being alive again.
I remember the enormous *anger* I felt at the time. It felt like they were spitting in my face.
Afterwards, I can see that most of it was a healthy reaction. I quit reading. I didn't continue, becoming more and more discontent, feeling more sidelined or out of step with the Marvel universe. Instead I found other things to read.
But that was of course not my only insight in toxicity with regards to myself. I remember a flatmate inviting her friend to a visit. The flatmate was also a comic nerd, so I remember starting to talk about comics, trying to see what we had in common, what likes we both shared, on what level we could discuss. Until she asked if I was interrogating her. And that was a clear wake-up call. What I was doing was in practice seen as if I was trying to find out if she was a "fake geek girl", that toxic concept where only women are questioned about their statuses as geeks or nerds.
A third insight was only this year while watching first Captain Marvel and then Avengers: End Game. The sudden understanding that I didn't really get any pleasure out of these movies. I was never that much of a fan of action movies and that is much of what the Marvel movies are. I wasn't watching them as much out of enjoyment as I was out of addiction. I was watching them as a completionist, wanting to learn all the details, again building up an expertise. But building up that expertise also forced me to spend time on things that I didn't really like. Often sitting there bored while Captain Marvel was having another uninteresting fight, waiting for it to stop to at least get a bit of plot or dialogue.
Thinking of nerds as addicts puts things in a different perspective. Not only as addicts but as persons who come to identify themselves as, let's use a grandiose expression, Keepers of Knowledge. People who have for 10-20 years built up a knowledge about a subject, are addicted to add to this knowledge, but suddenly recognize that they don't enjoy it anymore. And the frustration of needing to do things *they don't like* just to feed the addiction.
Myself, I walked away from Spider-Man and Marvel. They didn't fit my needs anymore and I moved on. Toxicity, I feel, is for those that can't move on. But I feel it is good to admit that I myself have these feelings, because that makes it possible for me to recognize them before I grow angry enough. Recognize the pattern in myself and thus being able to also see the flaws it is built on.
The Trump administration is considering a proposal that would use Google, Amazon and Apple to collect data on users who exhibit characteristics of mental illness that could lead to violent behavior, The Washington Post reported Thursday.
The proposal is part of an initiative to create a Health Advanced Research Projects Agency (HARPA), which would be located inside the Health and Human Services Department, the report notes, citing sources inside the administration. The new agency would have a separate budget and the president would be responsible for appointing its director.
...
HARPA would take after Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, which serves as the research arm for the Pentagon. The idea was first crafted in 2017 but has since gotten a renewed push after mass shootings killed 31 people in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, in August.
The Suzanne Wright Foundation approached the president recently and proposed the agency include a project called Stopping Aberrant Fatal Events by Helping Overcome Mental Extremes, or Safe Home, the report notes, citing two people familiar with the matter.
The document lists several technologies that could be employed to help collect information, including Apple Watches, Amazon Echo and Google Home. Geoffrey Ling, the lead scientific adviser on HARPA, told reporters Thursday the plan would require enormous amounts of data and "scientific rigor."
What kind of person would threaten and harass a rape crisis center? Here in Vancouver, we have the answer: trans activists. While it might sound odd to the uninitiated that those who claim to value 'inclusivity' and 'acceptance' would also be the same people who nail a dead rat to the door of a transition house for battered women, those of us following the gender identity debate closely are all too familiar with this type of occurrence.
On Tuesday, Vancouver Rape Relief & Woman's Shelter (VRRWS) tweeted images of vandalism left on their storefront — a space used for meetings, events, and support groups. 'Kill TERFs,' 'Fuck TERFs,' 'TERFs go home, you are not welcome,' 'Transwomen are women,' and 'Trans Power' had been scrawled across the windows and door in black marker. 'TERF,' for the blissfully ignorant, is an acronym that stands for 'trans-exclusionary radical feminist.'
Anybody should be able to say anything at all and not be threatened with death. But certainly, of all the people who should be protected from such terrorizing, it should be women who dedicate their lives to helping some of the most downtrodden among us — those with few to no resources, who are running for their lives, who have suffered immensely, and are simply trying to protect themselves and their families.
Any person who would go so far as to intimidate and threaten women who stand up for other women in this particularly disturbing way is on the wrong side of politics, never mind history. It is beyond unacceptable that the left is not only remaining silent on these kinds of attacks, but is continuing to fuel them, by claiming it is feminists who are guilty of 'hate' and 'violence,' not their comrades-in-arms.
Meghan Murphy is a writer in Vancouver, BC. Her website is Feminist Current.
The device is simple in essence. The researchers create pairs of entangled microwave photons using a superconducting device called a Josephson parametric converter. They beam the first photon, called the signal photon, toward the object of interest and listen for the reflection. In the meantime, they store the second photon, called the idler photon. When the reflection arrives, it interferes with this idler photon, creating a signature that reveals how far the signal photon has traveled. Voila -- quantum radar!
