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maarsen

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Posts posted by maarsen

  1. 47 minutes ago, Spockydog said:

    I see the media has dialled down the whole 'get yourself checked for cancer' angle they jumped on in the immediate aftermath of the king's diagnosis. 

    Obviously not a good look when Chaz's subjects can't get themselves checked because HM's Government has dragged the NHS down onto its knees and there is currently an 18-month waiting list for the elective procedure that revealed Charles' cancer in the first place. 

     

    The finger up the bum?

  2. I just picked up a biography of Napoleon Bonaparte by Michael Broers. I have had an interest in history since I was old enough to read but this is the first time I have actually read any sort of history of Napoleon Bonaparte. I have always wanted to but I just never got around to it. I have read both fiction and non fiction about the Napoleonic wars but never about the man himself.

  3. 43 minutes ago, Larry of the Lawn said:

    I started The Mountain in the Sea last night, about halfway through and very much loving it so far.

     

     

    Did you ever finish Dhalgren? Did you like It? Just curious as it is not to all tastes and is a challenging read.

  4. 18 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

    Has the kind of cancer been leaked yet? All I’ve heard is that it’s not prostate cancer.

    Nope. No word has been leaked. Having been the subject of a few prostate exams (and one of the reasons for me having a female MD is that if anyone pokes their finger up there I would rather have someone with small hands), I suspect that the colon being right there next to the prostate, cancer of the colon is a good guess along with bladder cancer because that is right next door too.

  5. 11 hours ago, Lord of Oop North said:

    The current staffing crisis has nothing to do with the miniscule about of nurses that refused to be vaccinated.

    Everything that I have read has said that 99% of "employees" complied. That includes non nursing staff.

    In Ontario, we literally need to hire like 10-15k+ more nurses per year to actually have safe staff to patient ratios, and to offset retirements and turnover.

    Among all the provinces Ontario has always had the fewest nurses per patient population, and the lowest per capita money spent  on healthcare. This has been the case for at least the 90s. Any time health care worker contracts come up for renegotiation, out comes the rhetoric about how overpaid and underworked we are. Then comes the complaint that health care costs are too high and how dare we ask for more money. No one ever seems to think that if our jobs are so good to have, why is there not a lineup to apply for work? We work 7 days a week, every holiday, and 24 hours a day.  Michael Hurley, Ontario Council of Hospital Unions President, always said that Mike Harris gave the workers the biggest raise ever after laying off thousands of workers and then finding out he needed to hire them back.

  6. 1 hour ago, Mexal said:

    Only if SCOTUS takes up the case on the merits. They may not want to touch it given judges on both sides are saying the same thing plus former judges, legal scholars and well, everyone but him. That seems more likely to me than them taking it up and declaring a former President immune. If they deny cert, trial likely in late spring I think.

    Any Supreme Court Justice who hears this case has to wonder about a president, later on not liking a ruling that was given down,  having him/her assassinated, with immunity mind you, to open up a spot for a more amenable justice.

  7. More stuff to add as I was listening to CBC at the noon phone in segment with the people talking about how the protest affected them. Almost all the callers complained that they had lost their job after refusing to be vaccinated. Here in Ontario it has been a well established principle in labour law that refusing a vaccination is enough grounds for an employer to move you from your regular workplace and put you in a place where you don't have the opportunity to infect others. Hospital workers regularly get vaccinated for influenza, and those that don't are subject to the above measures. A nurse or a doctor or anyone else whose job requires them to be in contact with others or the public can be sent home, without pay, until they are vaccinated. Furthermore under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, here in Ontario, an employer has the duty to take all reasonable precautions to protect the health and safety of workers in the workplace. Someone not getting vaccinated puts others at risk of illness and as such the emoyer can send them home without pay.

    In other words Stop The Whining!!

  8. 2 hours ago, LynnS said:

    So am I.  This was the largest peaceful protest that I've ever witnessed.  I watched the live feeds; followed the reporters accounts and interviews with protesters and it wasn't anything like it was being portrayed by the government or the CBC.  Trudeau's response was certainly instructive, both illegal and immoral.  What burned me the most was the freezing of people's bank accounts; the illegal use of GoFundMe donors list and the subsequent doxing of those people.  They weren't far-right Americans but ordinary Canadians.

    Those protestor were morons. Demanding the government to resign and having the Senate and the protestor form an interim government is both stupid and illegal. 

  9. 4 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

    According to the report I just saw on CNN, the problem is the reservoirs are already full. At least the forecast seems to be for less rain than initially expected, yesterday I saw reports that they’d get a year’s worth of rain in 24 hours, now they are saying 6 months of rain instead. I can’t imagine getting 6 months worth of rain in 24 hours, though we get more rain here than most parts of California.

    I checked the snowfall in Cape Breton, they got 80 cm, which means snowdrifts are probably 2 to 3 metres deep.

    I used to live in the snowbelt off of Lake Huron and we would get feet of snow at a time. I spent a winter  in Halifax once when they got about 3 feet.  This looks worse.

  10. 41 minutes ago, mormont said:


    I’d have to dig up the research but from memory, most of the improvement in academic performance comes from three factors: better teacher to pupil ratios, pupils being from social backgrounds who do better at this level of education regardless of what school they attend because their parents prioritise education and have the resources to support them, and the relatively low incidence of disruptive behaviour because fewer pupils come from deprived backgrounds. Private school is basically an educational gated community. The advantage comes from keeping the plebs out. 

    Ps, private school =/= boarding school. Most private schools are not boarding schools and most of those that do offer boarding have numerous day pupils. 

    Here in Ontario we have 4 different educational systems. 3 of them are publicand are a Catholic board, a French language board and the mainstream public board. The mainstream public board also has a French immersion component. Then there are the private schools. If you have a student with physical or mental issues, any of these boards, except the  mainstream one can refuse to accommodate a student. Even within the French Immersion a student can be asked to leave. By law though the mainstream board has to take all comers. Of course the average marks are down compared to the more selective parts of the educational system. Parents here game the system so their child gets into the so called better system. 

  11. 52 minutes ago, Zorral said:

    This sounds like Los Angeles and the atmospheric river storms of rain (not snow) going on, way over on the other side of the continent!  It's so rough to deal with.

    With any luck it will fill the water reservoirs that have been dangerously low the last few years.  Sort of a silver lining to those clouds.

  12. 9 hours ago, Crixus said:

    Agree, and that's why my sister has invested so much time and effort into this - she says she'll do without a lot, but her priority is giving her 2 kids (nephew and niece) the best possible education. It's literally the only thing she and her husband can agree on :D

    And luckily, they've both been raised right so hopefully won't transform into unbearable little shits anytime soon. Even now, they go to a posh school which has the likes of one of Jacob Rees-Mogg's *vomit* kids, along with the grandson of an absolutely vile, corrupt Pakistani politician: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nawaz_Sharif 

    They're not friends, safe to say. 

    I have serious doubt that a private school education is superior to a publicly funded school system. Are private schools repositories of esoteric knowledge that is unavailable to the rest of us? Are the teachers a better class of human beings than the rest of the population and more able to access the esoteric knowledge hidden in their schools. The only difference is better funding at the expense of those of us who have not the ability to send our kids there. As I see it a lot of the reasons for private schools is to keep your kids away from the real world and its issues for as long as possible.

    If you really want a good education for your child, surround them with books and other resources so they can explore the world around them and actually learn and grow.

  13. 1 hour ago, Here's Looking At You, Kid said:

    Skill trumps equipment.  I agree with you. 

    I see too many people buying way more camera than they need pushed by advertising implying that that is what is needed to do photography well. I have been going the other way using simpler and simpler cameras. Any way, good luck with your photography.  

  14. 7 minutes ago, Mr. Chatywin et al. said:

    Personally I think reading too much into your dreams is overrated. The subject came up a few times when I was a psych undergrad and I found it unconvincing. 

    Same here. I even did a research paper on dreams and there is nothing to the content of your dreams that has any importance. People do have recurring dreams or anxiety dreams but considering that most people do not remember dreams, and if you do, as soon as you wake up or begin moving muscles, the memory fades away. Why we dream is a whole other problem and one I don't really have answers to. All animals with a nervous system seem to dream but why is a big question.

  15. So today I am on YT checking out a few channels I follow and up pops a Brendan Kavanaugh video. I occasionally watch his videos because I really enjoy the way he plays public pianos in England. Only this time he is in a bit of trouble with a few members of the Chinese government and/or their agents for videoing himself playing, in a public space, on a piano set up just for that purpose.

  16. On 1/27/2024 at 9:59 PM, Here's Looking At You, Kid said:

    I guess I could look for the manual online.  The camera is a Nikon FM2n and research tells me it's the equipment used for the famous Afghan photo of the girl with the green eyes. 

    Nice camera but the skill of the photographer behind it is the reason for the photo. Whether a Nikon or a Pentax, or a Canon was used the photo would be as arresting. I use a Yashicamat TLR that I bought used for $100 in the 80s, and according to the serial # it was built in 1957. I would put that up against any 35 mm camera for photo quality just because the negative is almost 4 times bigger. Slide film in that camera is amazing. Too bad Kodak never made Kodachrome in that format. Anyway, enjoy the camera as lenses and accessories are still available.

  17. 8 hours ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

    Speaking of economics, this Evergrande debt story is scary.

    Evergrande, symbol of China’s property crisis, heads to liquidation

    From CNN-

    "Previously China’s second biggest real estate company, Evergrande defaulted on its financial obligations to creditors at the end of 2021, igniting a crisis in the property sector that continues to weigh on the wider economy. A former Chinese official said last year that China has enough vacant properties to house more than its entire population of 1.4 billion."

    Holy smokes theres a loaded gun of potential destruction as the investors get caught in the ramifications of holding that debt.

    I suspect that the worldwide runup in real estate prices before Covid is a direct effect of knowledgable investors getting out of Evergrande before the extent of the insolvency was known. I imagine there are shortsellers who have made a large fortune shorting the stock.

  18. 3 hours ago, Toth said:

    Just had a debate on Discord with a supporter of the new Wagenknecht party because I mocked how in its preamble it already demanded lifting sanctions on Russia, stopping all weapons going to Ukraine, cutting ties to the US and disarming Europe and said it'll be curious to see where they got their donations from. However, this woman seemed dead serious in her support of her. I'm going crazy here. Is there a term for suicidal pacifism?

    So she was advocating for all of the above, justifying it it with the past immoral actions of the US, that sanctions didn't stop the war and therefore could as well be lifted (and to my question to clarify that she wants us to finance Russia's war, saying that lifting sanctions doesn't mean giving money or tech to Russia, somehow), that having an army is just a waste of money, that nukes are immoral and not a tool for defense, that she is scared that an AfD government will use a rearmed Bundeswehr to wage an offensive war someday in the future and that war is just... generally bad and that we needed "some other way" than deterrence to avoid it because deterrence is a lie. Eventually she would type out her way to deal with an invasion: To just... invite the enemy soldiers to come live with us instead of fighting them... And upon me asking what to do if that wasn't making them drop their weapons, she proposed to just... build a huge wall around the country...

    I just... sat there struggling to comprehend this. "Why do you think these things?!?" Obviously she snapped at me for being condescending when I wrote that this sounds dangerously naive and childish.

    I think the word for such people is 'Tankie'. Unwavering support of any regime that opposes the West.

  19. 23 hours ago, Zorral said:

    And among the consequences of 

    is this kind of toxic male directing his toxicity at a woman, harassing and abusing her non-stop:

    Greg Gutfeld's sexual obsession with AOC accidentally reveals the insecurities of the MAGA man
    Donald Trump's brief "testimony" Thursday was more of the same: MAGA tough guys run away when confronted

    https://www.salon.com/2024/01/26/greg-gutfelds-obsession-with-aoc-accidentally-reveals-the-insecurities-of-the-maga-man/

     

    I have seen that behavior many times. Women that are smarter than them and would never have a relationship with them scare the snot out of them.

  20. On 1/22/2024 at 3:18 AM, Alytha said:

    I have been reading a couple of samples on kindle lately, and would appreciate some help deciding if I should get them or not :)

    - Babel17 by Samuel R Delaney - I'm always a bit wary of classic sci-fi as it tends to not age very well. Has anybody read it and could comment on that?

    - The City of Dusk by Tara Sim: I found the premise interesting, but from the sample, there seems to be a lot of teenage drama incoming? Has anybody read it? Is it rather YA or adult level?

    Thank you! :) 

    I have read Babel-17 many years ago and I suspect it will hold up especially if you have an interest in language. Delaney was never big on space opera but language and the nuances it comes with and the problems that can arise are one of his themes. It is not a large book like Dhalgren, which I would not recommend unless you really like Babel-17.

  21. Just now, Larry of the Lawn said:

    I had an older pre-computer, naturally aspirated diesel truck for years.   Was super cheap for what it was, but required some extra planning in the winter.  Block heater, insulated blanket to throw over hood in extreme cold, mix some kerosene into the fuel when below freezing... I always had a 100 ft extension cord in the cab for the block heater when I was away from the house, arranged for parking at work that let me plug her in.  A couple times actually ran a gas generator in the bed to heat it so I could drive home at the end of the day when working in the boonies.  Didn't you guys used to run your old diesels al winter up there so you didn't need to start them cold?

    I'd imagine if you live north of 38 or so it'd make sense to invest in a heated charging area, and not rely on charging away from the home base in the winter.  

    I still remember going to work one morning on a cold winter's day and seeing a car in front of me trailing a 100' extension cord.

  22. 10 minutes ago, Zorral said:

    No.  He's always quite admired Hitler and in his own way he's studied him.  Remember who is dad was.

    The content may come from Trump, but I seriously doubt that a man who cannot form a coherent sentence when using a teleprompter can do so on a cell phone. Someone is doing the big words for him.

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