Here's what's wrong with Canada. I know you were wondering.

If you want to know what's wrong with Canada, I've got the whole thing in a nutshell right here.

Canadian systems builder 45 Drives is perhaps best known for the dense multi-drive storage systems employed by the likes of Backblaze and others, but over the last year the biz has expanded its line-up to virtualization kit, and now low-power clients and workstations aimed at enterprises and home enthusiasts alike. 45 Drives' Home Client marks a departure from the relatively large rack-mount chassis it normally builds. Founder Doug Milburn told The Register the mini PC is something of a passion project that was born out of a desire to build a better home theater PC.

Housed within a custom passively cooled chassis built in-house by 45 Drive's parent company Protocase, is a quad-core, non-hyperthreaded Intel Alder Lake-generation N97 processor capable of boosting to 3.6GHz, your choice of either 8GB or 16GB of memory, and 250GB of flash storage. The decision to go with a 12-gen N-series was motivated in part by 45 Drives' internal workloads, Milburn explains, adding that to run PowerPoint or Salesforce just doesn't require that much horsepower. However, 45 Drives doesn't just see this as a low-power PC. Despite its name, the box will be sold under both its enterprise and home brands. In home lab environments, these small form factor x86 and Arm PCs have become incredibly popular for everything from lightweight virtualization and container hosts to firewalls and routers.

Here's an example of Home Client, their really sweet home theatre/NAS/router appliance.

The Home Client is a Linux-based, small-form-factor personal computer by 45HomeLab (not primarily a storage device).

 

The Home Client is a single-board-computer-based device, with a pre-installed Linux operating system. It has an extremely small footprint, making it perfect to stick on a TV stand or fit onto a desk. It is fanless, so it will remain quiet and unobtrusive while staying in a sleek, small-form-factor low profile.The Home Client is built in North America with an aerospace-grade aluminum milled chassis.

 

We see the Home Client as functioning best in virtualized environments, where it can stream applications from your lab. It can also be great for light office work, streaming, and other similar applications. But it is completely open, so it is up to you to make whatever use of it that fits best into your home environment.

Very nice indeed. Canadian made, by (one presumes) Canadians.

The problem? It's $800 bucks. Competing single-board, low power competitors? The first one I looked up with the same motherboard, ~$200 bucks. I'm sure there are many more that are cheaper.

There you go. Not double the price. FOUR TIMES the price.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what's wrong with Canada.

Oh, and why is it four times the price? Because regulation, tax, tax, tax, tax and tax, and also every input from labor to fuel to electricity is four times higher than it ought to be because of regulation, tax, tax, tax, tax and tax,and of course real estate costs. Which are much more than 4x what it ought to be.

Prediction, nobody is going to pay $800 bucks for a $200 headless compute appliance. They're just not going to do it. Except the government. If they make friends in the Liberal Party, government offices might standardize on these things and then 45 Drives might very well make some money on this thing.

And now, a knife license. In Calgary, no less.

We used to make this knife license joke 30 years ago every time somebody said "gun license." I blame us for that, we couldn't understand we weren't dealing with rational human beings.

So here we are, 2024, and some appalling fools are demanding you get a license to buy a knife in Calgary Alberta.

From the article, their "reasoning."

"What's happening here is very alarming," said Ashley Salvador, councillor for Ward Métis during an urban planning committee meeting on Tuesday."As we heard today, you walk in, and right next to the chocolate bars is a wall of knives that are designed for harm," said Ashley Salvador, councillor for Ward Métis.

Because "a wall of knives that are designed for harm" needs a picture to go with it.

 

And...

Bryan LaFleche, president of Crystal Kids Youth Centre also spoke at the meeting to express how prevalent knives, as well UnWTas brass knuckles and bear spray have become amongst the kids at the centre, which they have to confiscate regularly. "When we ask them: 'Why are you carrying a knife? Why are you carrying bear spray?' The answer every single time is 'it's for protection'," LaFleche told the committee. "Our great fear with that is when an 11-year-old child pulls a six-inch knife out of his knapsack and says 'I need this for protection,' we spend hours trying to convince them that that knife affords them absolutely no protection."

 

It's funny how kids can tell when they're being lied to, eh?

 

Then in literally the next breath:

Allan Bolstad with the Alberta Avenue Community League purchased several knives at a convenience store on 118th Avenue to present the committee with a slideshow illustrating the intended purpose of the knives being sold. "When you hold these knives, when you actually have them in your hand, you realize how lethal that they are, and that they're designed for one thing and that's for hurting someone badly, or killing someone," said Bolstad.  "These aren't for buttering toast. They're for trying to kill someone." Bolstad suggested the city create a separate business licence for stores looking to sell   knives, akin to the one currently in place for selling firearms.

So, depending which side of their mouths they're talking out of, either a knife provides "absolutely no protection" or they are "lethal." Palpably lethal, according to Mr. Allan Bolstad. You just pick it up and you can feeeeeel how it was made to kill somebody.

Here's a picture of Mr. Allan Bolstad. Scroll all the way down to the bottom. As it says in the article, he'd also like to license builders and so forth. Because nothing on this Earth should be allowed to move or sit still without a license. You can see how he looks like the kind of guy who would think something like that. 

 

Here's another one, with him posing heroically in front of what was probably a business once, driven under by socialists.

 

Mr. Bolstad, keeping weed-grown lots vacant in Alberta!

Because there oughta be a law. Right? Keep them lots vacant, Allan.

Real-life "chemtrails".

 Once again, one of those gap-tooth hillbilly redneck tinfoil hat nutter conspiracies... is actually being done.

 

Remember when we thought this was fake?

 Aboard the deck of a World War II-era aircraft carrier, University of Washington scientists flicked the switch on a glorified snow-making machine," reports the Seattle Times. They describe the scientists "blasting a plume of saline spray off the coast of Alameda, California... trying to perfect a shot of salty particles that would make clouds better at reflecting sunlight back toward space, and help cool the Earth.

"It's called marine cloud brightening." Compressed air was pumped at hundreds of pounds per square inch through a nozzle full of a salty mix with a similar composition to seawater housed in an apparatus similar to a snow-making machine. The New York Times reported the machine produced a deafening hiss, releasing a fine mist that traveled hundreds of feet through the air. The scientists wanted to see if the machine could generate a consistent spray of the right size salt aerosols, taking samples downwind with instruments mounted on scissor lifts, commonly used in construction.
"This study is not yet large enough to affect local weather," the article points out. Yet "the idea of interfering with nature is so contentious, organizers of Tuesday's test kept the details tightly held, concerned that critics would try to stop them," reported the New York Times.

 Yes, real-life chemtrails, that fruitbat crazy conspiracy theory from the 90s.

Done in secret, no less.

So now I need to go back and reconsider laughing at David Icke and his lizard people.

US Federal judge rules -illegal- immigrants have gun rights.

Here's something I bet you didn't have on your 2024 Apocalypse Bingo card. 

Judge Coleman, a Barack Obama appointee, initially found the gun ban for illegal immigrants was constitutional back in April 2022. However, she agreed to reconsider the case in light of rulings from the federal appeals courts in the Third and Seventh Circuit that questioned whether those convicted of non-violent crimes could be permanently disarmed after the High Court handed down Bruen in June 2022. She concluded breaking misdemeanor immigration laws alone is not enough justification to strip somebody of their gun rights under the new test.

 

"[C]arbajal-Flores has never been convicted of a felony, a violent crime, or a crime involving the use of a weapon. Even in the present case, Carbajal-Flores contends that he received and used the handgun solely for self-protection and protection of property during a time of documented civil unrest in the Spring of 2020," Judge Coleman wrote. "Additionally, Pretrial Service has confirmed that Carbajal-Flores has consistently adhered to and fulfilled all the stipulated conditions of his release, is gainfully employed, and has no new arrests or outstanding warrants."

Yes friends, a liberal judge, appointed by the Lightbringer himself, read the Second Amendment to the US Constitution and understood what it said. Yes, she ruled it is unconstitutional to bar a man from owning a firearm because of immigration status or because of a misdemeanor court conviction.

Because it IS unconstitutional, obviously. This is not rocket surgery. It says so right on the fucking paper. "...shall not be infringed..." is pretty final.

Now, do I think this judgement was arrived at honestly? Absolutely not. This is shenanigans, for sure.

But I don't care, because it will bring about the end of the DemocRat disarmament campaign, and their invasion plans as well. Because if an illegal immigrant has the right to have and carry a firearm, can the government say 'no' to legal immigrants and citizens? Uh uh.

And all those immigrants flooding the border, are they going to keep coming when shit starts to get real in places like NYC and Chicago? No they're not. Because the party will be over. They'll come to CANADA instead.

Going to be popcorn time watching the Shiny Pony crowd dealing with this. Guns are going to be -flooding- into Toronto. Flooding. Containers-full will arrive from the USA across the Indian reservations. Scumbags will be selling Fentanyl and Glocks on the street corner instead of just Fentanyl.

Metro Toronto Police: huddle and cower, peasants.

I am not making this up. Metro Toronto Police have issued a statement advising homeowners to "leave their car keys by the front door" so that car thieves can take them and go when they break in.

https://twitter.com/ShaziGoalie/status/1768129765070819525

This is because there are car thieves armed with guns, kicking in people's front doors and SHOOTING THEM to get the car keys and steal the car in the driveway.

To repeat, MTO suggests you leave the keys handy so the ARMED CRIMINALS won't kill you in your home. Because they would never stick around for a little rape-and-murder action if you give them the car, right? That could never happen, I'm sure.

It isn't like the federal government has allowed over a million unvetted refugees from violent failed states into Canada over the last year or so, and it isn't like the cops function as catch-and-release fishermen these days. Oh, wait...

In other news, suburban homes in and around Ancaster, sleepy town outside Hamilton, have begun sporting iron fences around the front yard, with gates across their driveways.

Just wondering how long the Normies are going to be able to pretend everything is fine. I'm thinking the third time they get mugged/have their car stolen they'll probably wake up. Once is an accident, twice is happenstance, three times is enemy action, right?

Update: Anybody remember Peter Khill? Supreme Court of Canada put him in jail after he was acquitted by a jury for the crime of shooting an Indian in self-defense.

Uppitydate: Anybody remember Ian Thompson? Charged with two counts of "unsafe storage of a firearm" after running off FOUR armed men who were firebombing his house.

Apple cancels the Apple Car.

The destruction of the electric car fad accelerates! This time, Apple has very quietly cancelled all work on its Apple electric car.

 

It's dead, Tim.

 

The decision to ultimately wind down the project is a bombshell for the company, ending a multibillion-dollar effort that would have vaulted Apple into a whole new industry. The tech giant started working on a car around 2014, setting its sights on a fully autonomous electric vehicle with a limousine-like interior and voice-guided navigation. But the project struggled nearly from the start, with Apple changing the team's leadership and strategy several times. Lynch and Williams took over the undertaking a few years ago -- following the departure of Doug Field, now a senior executive at Ford Motor.

Note that they mentioned Ford, which has stopped shipping the electric F-150, and a couple of weeks ago cancelled a $12 billion expansion into... electric cars. General Motors has also cut back hard on electric car plans recently. Toyota never had any electric plans, they dodged the whole thing and saved themselves a ton of money.

This good news of course makes me suspicious. Nothing good ever happens these days.

Did all these guys look into their crystal balls and see a looming bankruptcy that was previously invisible? Did they all suddenly understand what power engineers, town planners, car guys, car dealerships, rental companies, and literally everybody with two functioning synapses to rub together, has been telling them since Tesla started? Really? All of them? Right now?

What changed between February 2023 and February 2024? Last year it was full power forward on electrics and self-driving cars. Billions were being spent, billions more were being promised. There was going to be an EV in every driveway by 2035, baby. The Canadian government has gone so far as to -mandate- that there will be only EVs sold after 2035 here in Canuckistan. No more gas guzzlers for you, Great White North. Nothing about government rhetoric has changed. They are all-in on transition to EVs. It is a done-deal.

Except that all the big car companies bailed, and now Apple, literally the biggest tech company in the world, has bailed.

It makes me wonder if the US government made a phone call and told them all that the discounts, tax breaks and special deals were off the table. That would explain it better than assuming all those companies suddenly understood that EVs suck. They knew that already. They were going ahead, knowing that nobody wants EVs, nobody likes EVs, and nobody is going to buy EVs.

Why would the US government make that phone call? Hmm?

No more roads for Canada.

Environment Canada approved.

 

Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault says that you will enjoy your gridlock, or there will be trouble.

"Our government has made the decision to stop investing in new road infrastructure," said Guilbeault, who represents the Quebec riding of Laurier-Sainte-Marie. "Of course, we will continue to be there for cities, provinces and territories to maintain the existing network, but there will be no more envelopes from the federal government to enlarge the road network.
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"The analysis we have done is that the network is perfectly adequate to respond to the needs we have. And thanks to a mix of investment in active and public transit and in territorial planning and densification, we can very well achieve our goals of economic, social and human development without more enlargement of the road network."

Guilbeault also said money spent on asphalt and concrete for road expansions would be better invested in projects that will help fight climate change and adapt to its impacts, the Gazette reported.

To me, this says a few things. First, Mr. Guilbeault is a gentleman of questionable intellect. Not news, sadly.

Second, the federal government might be having some money problems. Highways are expensive, and saying you're not building any more to save Mother Gaia is a great excuse to save the money. Or so a midwit apparently thinks.

Third, a Federal cabinet minister saying something like that out loud indicates a certain desperation to display his virtue in the face of coming doom.

Finally, this man thinks he and his fellow politicians are in charge of "economic, social and human development" in this country. They see all, they know all, they have set the goals and they shall achieve them. No need for new roads, peasants. Your betters have decided how everything is going to be. You will walk, and you will like it.

There used to be this guy in Germany who talked like that. Had a funny mustache, loved dogs.