Drakes Supermarkets fits GPS tracker to meat products to stop shoplifting - "police believe criminals often trade stolen meat, that can cost up to $100 per kilo, for drugs and other goods"
Left wingers: "if you saw someone stealing food, you didn't"
These French Cheeses Are at Risk of Extinction - "Popular varieties like Camembert, brie and blue cheese are at risk of disappearing due to a collapse of microbial diversity, according to a statement from France’s National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). Camembert, in particular, is “on the verge of extinction,” per CNRS. The soft, creamy cheese is made from cow’s milk and originated in Camembert, Normandy, in northern France... “The food industry has exerted so much pressure on the selection of fungi that the microbial diversity among [industrially produced] cheeses has become extremely impoverished,” according to CNRS... “Cheese producers could simply inoculate cow’s milk with other P. biforme molds,” writes Vox. “P. biforme is closely related to the albino strain, though it might give the cheeses a slightly different look and aroma.”"
Why colleges aggressively recruit applicants just to turn them down - "As college-admissions season kicks into high gear, Kelley is a target of a little-known practice among colleges and universities called “recruit to deny,” in which they try to make their admissions process look more selective by boosting their number of applicants — then turning many of them down — through hard-sell marketing techniques. One major reason for this is that the more selective an institution appears to be, the higher it ends up in the college rankings... “The rankings drive this,” Hawkins said. “But if the rankings went away tomorrow, you would still have college presidents, trustees, alumni, students and all sorts of other stakeholders who care about how selective their college is.”... On top of anxiety about the rankings, something else is now driving colleges to turbocharge their marketing: the fact that students today apply to more colleges on average than their peers did in the past, thanks to the Common Application and other advances... For many schools, that means having to increase the number of students they accept to produce the same number of freshmen. And some public and private campuses, stretched for revenue because of state budget cuts and higher costs, are trying to raise their enrollments, so they need even more applicants."
How Video Games Satisfy Basic Human Needs - "For the British artificial intelligence researcher and computer game designer Richard Bartle, the kaleidoscopic variety of human personality and interest is reflected in the video game arena. In his 1996 article “Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades: Players Who Suit MUDs,” he identified four primary types of video game player (the Killers, Achievers, Explorers, and Socializers)... '‘People have different reasons for playing your games; they don’t all play for the same reason you do.’”... While players sometimes experiment by, for example, playing an evil character just to see what it’s like, Bartle found that such experiments usually lead to affirmation rather than transformation. “Basically,” he said, “if you’re a jerk in real life, you’re going to be a jerk in any kind of social setting, and if you’re not, you’re not.” In a 2012 study, titled “The Ideal Self at Play: The Appeal of Video Games That Let You Be All You Can Be,” a team of five psychologists more closely examined the way in which players experiment with “type” in video games. They found that video games that allowed players to play out their “ideal selves” (embodying roles that allow them to be, for example, braver, fairer, more generous, or more glorious) were not only the most intrinsically rewarding, but also had the greatest influence on our emotions. “Humans are drawn to video and computer games because such games provide players with access to ideal aspects of themselves,” the authors concluded. Video games are at their most alluring, in other words, when they allow a person to close the distance between how they are, and how they wish to be... “Self-actualization is there at the top of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, and it’s what many games deliver,” Bartle added. “That’s all people ever truly want: to be.”... The authors of a 2014 paper examining the role of self-determination in virtual worlds concluded that video games offer us a trio of motivational draws: the chance to “self-organize experiences and behavior and act in accordance with one’s own sense of self”; the ability to “challenge and to experience one’s own effectiveness”; and the opportunity to “experience community and be connected to other individuals and collectives.” For these researchers, incredibly, enjoyment is not the primary reason why we play video games. Enjoyment is not the primary motivation—“it is rather,” they wrote, “the result of satisfaction of basic needs.” Video game worlds provide us with places where we can act with impunity within the game’s reality. And yet, freed of meaningful consequence, law abiders continue to abide the law. The competitive continue to compete. The lonely seek community. Wherever we go, there we will be."
Planet Earth but for Karens, Chads, and Dads - YouTube
Meme - Black Adam: "My movie didn't do well but we can do better!"
DC: "You're fired!"
Superman: "I'd like to pursue new creative interests"
DC: "You're fired"
Ezra Miller: "I groomed two kids, attacked a bunch of strangers, women mostly, and burgled somebody's house. Oh, but I'm non binary now!"
DC: "Have a whole new movie franchise!"
Meme - "I wanna learn french. It sounds romantic AF"
"Yes it is. And I know french"
"oh that's sweet. Flirt with me in french then"
"omelette du fromage"
"omg i love you too"
Altered Sexual Orientation Following Dominant Hemisphere Infract - "The patient became aware of his homosexual orientation in his early teens and had several gay partners. He suffered a major depressive episode at age 26 that resolved within a few months. He also had a diagnosis of excessive harmful use of alcohol, but there was no evidence of dependence. The patient started complaining of his changed personality and heterosexual orientation 6 months after his second stroke. At the same time he complained of excessive mood swings and changed interests. He became preoccupied with photography and had a successful photographic exhibition a year after his second stroke. His sexual orientation remained heterosexual 4 years following the second stroke, and he preferred to describe himself as bisexual because of his previous homosexual orientation."
This video claimed that this showed that homosexuality was genetic and not environmental. That's a very odd interpretation (apparently developmental factors don't exist). The host also claimed that we don't discriminate against people due to their brain. Oh boy. Wait till he discovers that murderers have different brains. But then the video was just to dunk on "homophobes", so
Catching Up with the Man Who Had a Stroke That Made Him Gay - "What makes someone gay? For Chris Birch, it was a stroke. Messing around, doing forward rolls down a grass verge, the heavy-drinking 19-stone rugby-player "felt something go" in his neck. Momentary pressure had damaged a carotid artery, stemming blood flow to his brain and triggering a stroke. Over a year after the accident, Chris came out, claiming the stroke had changed his sexuality... Chris now refuses to pay his TV licence or watch the BBC, and there remains an embargo on British sales of a German book he co-authored about his stroke. He explains: "I know I sound like I'm very bitter, but I'm not. The BBC really dumbed down the documentary to the point it was ridiculous. They forced the public to perceive that I woke up gay… it's very sensationalised.""
What a fascist he is for criticising the BBC!
Curious Questions: Did the Tower of London menagerie provide the animals for London Zoo? - "The public first gained access to the menagerie during the reign of Elizabeth I. Admission was free if they were accompanied by cats or dogs, which were collected and fed to the carnivores. Visitors were advised ‘not to approach too near the dens and avoid every attempt to play with’ the animals, sensible advice that was not always heeded. On February 8, 1686, Mary Jenkinson was savaged to death after patting a lion’s paw."
Meme - "Every friends group setup
The Sexist
The Homophobe
The Racist
The that sends beheading videos into the group chat"
Meme - *Dune*
"SPAGE FASCISTS SAND PENISES. ALSO WORM POOP IS COCAINE OR SOMETHING IDK"
CNA Explains: How airlines ensure pilots don’t accidentally fall asleep while flying - "ICAO takes two approaches to fatigue risk management. The prescriptive approach requires airlines to comply with duty time limits defined by the state or country. Airlines manage fatigue with existing processes that are used for general safety hazards. The performance-based approach is more specific, allowing airlines to implement their own fatigue risk system tailored to their operations. It must be approved by the state or country... ICAO outlines two types of pilot rest - though not every country permits both. The first is “controlled rest”, where pilots can sleep in the cockpit. The second is “bunk rest”, where pilots can sleep in a passenger seat or crew bunk available in a long-haul widebody aircraft, aviation analyst Shukor Yusof told CNA... While only one pilot can take controlled rest at a time, both pilots must have agreed to the rest duration. This should be no longer than 40 minutes, akin to a “power nap”, explained Mr Shukor. The resting pilot must also pull their seat away from the controls. And once they wake, they cannot immediately take control of the plane, to ensure “full alertness”. The other pilot must inform cabin crew that one pilot is taking controlled rest. This ensures flight attendants maintain regular contact with the awake pilot, to prevent them from falling asleep. ICAO’s recommendations for controlled rest also state that autopilot and auto-thrust systems, if available, should be operational."
Anti-Pesticide Researchers May Have Committed Serious Ethics Breaches - "a review – that both the institution and publisher should have done – shows bias, undisclosed conflicts, clear violations of institutional and publishing ethical standards, and lack of evidence as the hallmarks for these claims. This research does raise new questions – questions for George Washington University and the journal Environmental Health. When academics lend their names, and that of their institutions, to special interest group campaigns, they put their employers’ reputations on the line. So, it is curious why the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health would choose to lend its prestige to the research arm of a notorious anti-pesticide campaign. In a study published in the journal Environmental Health last month [Feb 10, 2022], GW researchers claimed they had discovered three in five Americans tested positive for “high” levels of herbicide residues, which they represented as a human health risk. The publication’s ethics disclosures stated the work received “no funding,” and the GW authors denied any conflicts of interest. The same couldn’t be said be said of another co-author, not from GW, whose name raised eyebrows among watchdog groups and academics who follow pesticide health risk claims."
Into the Weeds: Why Manitoba is Ditching its Pesticide Ban and What it Means for the Rest of Canada - "One of the effects of Ontario’s ban was a rebranding of many familiar commercial products in an attempt to disguise their newfound uselessness. The highly popular herbicide Roundup, for example, is now sold as Roundup Advanced. And while original version contained glyphosate, an effective and widely tested broadleaf and grass desiccant, the only active ingredient in Roundup Advanced is vinegar. Many familiar products having been neutered in this way, alongside entirely new product lines boasting healthy-sounded names like “Green” or “Eco” but precious few ingredients of any practical use. As a result, it has become commonplace for embattled gardeners to rely on homemade concoctions... “Vinegar doesn’t work,” Parvis states conclusively. “It will brown off the leaves of some plants, but it doesn’t kill the roots.” This suggests that most liquid weed killers legally sold in restricted markets such as Ontario are similarly ineffective. “Salt does work,” Parvis admits. “Since sodium is toxic to all plants. But it is also toxic to microbes in the soil. So it kills everything.” Only original Roundup performed as intended. Parvis thus has solid backing when he bristles at provincial legislation that permits the use of vinegar and salt but forbids the use of products that actually work. “Glyphosate is less toxic [to the ecosystem] than either vinegar or salt. But the government has made Roundup illegal. And there isn’t anything else to use,” he says. (In 2017 the PMRA conducted a “thorough scientific review” of glyphosate and declared that its continued use as a pesticide did not pose a cancer or other health risk. That decision is currently being challenged in court by Ecojustice.) For this reason, Parvis calls a sweeping ban on all cosmetic pesticides, as is the case in most provinces, “a really stupid idea.” Not only has Ontario robbed homeowners and gardeners of a useful tool, it has also unleashed a host of unintended consequences. One immediate outcome of the pesticide ban, Parvis observes, has been an increase in fertilizer use... Of even greater concern has been the super-charged progress of European Buckthorn, an invasive, fast-growing shrub rapidly taking over large swaths of Ontario. “You see buckthorn everywhere in woods, meadows and hiking trails these days,” Parvis says. “It is showing up in gardens now too. And it’s next to impossible to get rid of.” Because it out-competes native species, the only way to conclusively eliminate buckthorn is to treat it with banned pesticides, something that is now impossible... "We are losing our native plants,” Parvis warns. “That is a huge environmental negative for me.”... It makes no sense to force taxpayers and municipalities to pay many times more for products that are “virtually ineffective,” as Steinbach’s experience demonstrates. Permitting the safe use of cost-effective weed control tools saves money and enhances civic pride. It also benefits agriculture by reducing the spread of weeds onto farmland. Parvis’ warnings about unintended consequences must also be heeded. A single-minded focus on eliminating all “chemical” pesticides – and let’s not forget, vinegar and salt are also chemicals – can lead to much broader environmental damage through increased fertilizer use or a take-over by unwelcome invasive species. All of this argues strongly against absolutist environmentalism. Ban all pesticides! may make for a great slogan. But implementing such a policy requires willful blindness to the impact on the real world. Good governance involves a careful scrutiny of costs and benefits. Any approach that focuses exclusively on risks (often minuscule or entirely theoretical) and ignores a mountain of evidence proving the great usefulness of regulated pesticides is unscientific and frankly, irrational. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we must remember that there’s great value in simply protecting the look of our lawns, flowerbeds, streetscapes, parks and other green spaces from weeds and other pests. While activists may deride such efforts as “cosmetic” – in the sense of being frivolous or unnecessary – this ignores the vital poetry of everyday life"
Ryan Painter: I am a former NDP executive. Jagmeet Singh's divisive politics are a dead-end for the party - "Former New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton, who had a real connection with a broad cross-section of Canadians, led his party to its biggest electoral success ever in 2011, gaining official opposition status. It’s been basically downhill since. In his final letter to Canadians before cancer took his life that same year, Layton urged Canadians to be “loving, hopeful, and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.” This was once the clarion call of the NDP, a party he helped re-mould from an ideological wasteland of left-wing dogma to a party that middle-class voters could actually imagine in government. Today, the NDP under Jagmeet Singh instead focuses on dividing Canadians and engendering anger... Layton’s broad appeal rooted in sincerity, warmth, and a cheerful disposition has been replaced by a rather narrow one focused on divisive identity politics... Under Singh’s helm, the NDP has been all but obliterated in Quebec, losing 15 of its 16 seats, and even in the prairies, the birthplace of the party. Today, the party is almost exclusively an urban party, the product of a leader focused on the interests of those on university campuses and in white-collar government offices. Singh’s embrace of identity politics was evident during his first day as leader when he struggled to condemn Talwinder Singh Parmar, the mastermind behind the 1985 Air India terrorist attack that killed 329 people, including 280 Canadians. While he eventually “clarified” his position, his waffling quickly showed that he was willing to go where the activist ideological winds would take him. This trend has continued with Singh’s departure from a balanced approach to the current tensions in the Middle East. While the NDP has always had problems with antisemitism in its ranks, under Layton and especially under Tom Mulcair there were efforts to rein in the more virulent anti-Israel sentiments in the party. This has not been the case under Singh... The NDP caucus fully embraced activist antisemitism in the wake of Hamas’ October 7th attacks—which took the lives of some 1,200 people and led to the hostage-taking of hundreds more—when they brought a deeply troubling motion in the House of Commons to recognize “the State of Palestine,” among other egregious suggestions. In Parliament, NDP MPs openly wore keffiyehs, a symbol of political resistance against Israel since the Palestinian Revolution in the late 1930s, and enthusiastically adopted by the “from the river to the sea” crowd since October 7. “Love is better than anger” indeed. Jack Layton is rolling in his grave. While the challenge of balancing identity politics and the effort of advancing progress for all Canadians has always been a challenge within the NDP, Layton knew how to appeal to activists without allowing them to co-opt the party, thus avoiding the virulently toxic wedge politics the NDP has embraced today. Layton understood that practical ideas could help middle-class Canadians. Whether it was his push to reinvigorate the automotive sector by investing billions to develop environmentally friendly cars and trucks manufactured here in Canada, or his commitment to work with the provinces to strengthen and eventually double the pension system, Layton frequently saw his job as fighting to build and strengthen the middle class. Not so for Singh, who embraced none of the zeal for a stronger middle class. Instead, the current NDP leader focuses his attention on populist attacks on the “ultra-rich” and big corporations such as grocery chains, in particular often singling out Loblaws and its head Galen Weston. It is worth noting that Singh’s brother, Gurratan Singh, former Ontario NDP MPP, works for a firm that lobbies for Loblaws competitor Metro. Millennials and younger voters are clearly desperate for at least one Canadian leader to pay attention to their growing feelings of hopelessness. Yet Singh’s words of support and understanding about affordability ring hollow coming from someone who has a penchant for expensive suits, Rolex watches, and Versace bags. A recent Abacus Data poll showed voters aged 30-44—the elder millennial cohort, a demographic that typically supports the NDP—have all but abandoned the party. Instead, they are overwhelmingly supporting Pierre Poilieve and the Conservatives. Why? Simple: Singh is offering nothing concrete for millennial and working-class voters to grab onto. This was brought into sharp relief when in 2023 Singh offered what Mike Moffatt, senior director of policy and innovation at The Smart Prosperity Institute, suggested would “surely push up home prices further and harm many of the people the NDP is trying to help.” Singh’s idea? Provide a subsidy for people who can’t pay their mortgage. A party of the working class suggests the best way to support people who want to own a home and build a future is for the federal government to take money from other working-class and low-income Canadians and subsidize homeowners. You would have never heard this kind of proposal from past NDP leaders, primarily because the party has historically been focused on trying to reduce inequality, not pushing the government to fund it. Layton’s harshest criticisms were always reserved for a system, not an individual or group. He decried a Canada whose abundant wealth wasn’t being shared. Layton knew inherently that it was Canada’s working class that needed a champion. Six years into Singh’s leadership of the party, can we say the same? For Singh and his caucus, the agenda is divide and conquer as opposed to build and inspire. Take NDP MP Charlie Angus introducing a private member’s bill that would seek to control what Canadians see by banning a variety of natural gas ads, even if the information in the advertising is true. A bill so ridiculous that it would have sent Canadians working for oil companies to jail for voicing support for Canada’s oil and gas sector. So egregious was this that it caused Alberta and Saskatchewan NDP MLAs to write a joint letter condemning the proposal. Singh’s inability to unite people extends deep within the NDP membership, as evidenced by the proposal of Alberta NDP leadership candidate Rakhi Pancholi who advocated for a policy of disassociation from the federal party. The NDP has lost touch with its working-class roots, and Canadians are no longer buying it. With poll after poll documenting the continued cratering of the Trudeau Liberals, the political stage is once again set for a remaking of the established order. And yet, have Singh and the NDP taken advantage? Hardly. Projections show they would most likely lose seats if an election were held today. Singh has squandered the goodwill that Layton built and turned the NDP from the so-called conscience of the nation into the very definition of irrelevance."
There're still people who pretend it's a workers' party
Helios Airways Flight 522 - Wikipedia - "the crew had neglected to set the pressurization system to automatic during the take-off checks. This caused the plane not to be pressurized during the flight and resulted in nearly everyone on board suffering from generalized hypoxia, thus resulting in a "ghost flight". The negligent nature of the accident led to lawsuits being filed against Helios Airways and Boeing, with the airline also being shut down by the Government of Cyprus the following year... At 11:49, flight attendant Andreas Prodromou entered the cockpit and sat down in the captain's seat, having remained conscious by using a portable oxygen supply... Prodromou held a UK Commercial Pilot Licence, but was not qualified to fly the Boeing 737... Prodromou succeeded in banking the plane away from Athens and towards a rural area as the engines flamed out, with his actions meaning that there were no ground casualties"
Meme - vittorio @IterIntellectus: "so boeing planes are falling apart because they got rid of bullies. there's a lesson in there"
"Bring back the "assholes"
STUART LANDIS Head of Partnerships
As doors and bolts from Boeing 737s fall from the sky, we're left questioning the downfall of a once-great American company. The answer has been hiding in plain sight: a recently resurfaced profile of Jim McNerney, CEO from 2005-15, shows he proudly rid the company of "phenomenally talented assholes" who were too focused on the planes' integrity rather than the stock price. Interesting. Where did these assholes go? Are they looking for work? Can we clone them, possibly, or open schools where they can train another generation of like-minded talent? Because clearly our lesson is this: America's assholes are keeping us alive. We need more of them."
The "kindness is everything" squad are going to be very upset (though of course they are anything but kind)
So much for a "safe" work environment without "bullying"
Second Boeing whistleblower dies suddenly after claiming safety flaws ignored - "Joshua Dean, a former Spirit AeroSystems quality auditor, claimed he was fired for flagging concerns about lax standards at the company’s manufacturing plant in Wichita, Kansas. His sudden death at the age of 45 on Tuesday came after suffering from a fast-spreading infection... Dean is the second Boeing whistleblower to die this year. John Barnett, a 62-year-old who was also represented by Brian Knowles, was found dead with an apparently ‘self-inflicted’ gunshot wound in March... He had previously been fit and healthy, according to The Seattle Times, which first reported his death."
US says Boeing breached 2021 737 MAX criminal prosecution deal - "The Justice Department said in a court filing in Texas that the U.S. planemaker had failed to "design, implement, and enforce a compliance and ethics program to prevent and detect violations of the U.S. fraud laws throughout its operations.""
Nearly 60% of retirees are supporting adult children financially, survey finds - "The majority of Canadian retirees are supporting their adult children financially, which they say is having a negative impact on their own finances, a new report has found. According to Fidelity Investments Canada's annual retirement report for 2024, 59 per cent of retirees report helping their non-student adult children with both day-to-day expenses and big-ticket items like home purchases, weddings and even education savings for their grandchildren."
FIRST READING: Canadians are so fed up, they’re abandoning political sacred cows - "Among respondents, 52 per cent wanted “increased access to health care provided by independent health entrepreneurs,” against just 29 per cent who didn’t. Perhaps most shocking of all, almost everyone agreed that private health care would be more efficient. Seven in 10 respondents agreed that “private entrepreneurs can deliver health care services faster than hospitals managed by the government” – against a mere 15 per cent who disagreed. “People understand that the endless waiting lists that characterize our government-run health systems will not be solved by yet another bureaucratic reform,” was the conclusion of the Montreal Economic Institute, which commissioned the poll... Last August, an Angus Reid Institute survey found an incredible 66 per cent saying the health system’s problems were well beyond a lack of funding. There were “bigger challenges in the health-care system that money can’t fix.” And while Angus Reid didn’t quite find respondents clamouring for private health care, they found that entrenched fears of a two-tier system were rapidly dissipating. In the course of a single year, the number of respondents who thought private care would “worsen” the system dropped from 50 per cent to 44 per cent... at least half of Canadians either wanted CBC defunded or retooled; 24 per cent said it was “no longer needed or useful,” with another 35 per cent saying it could stay only with “a lot of changes.” Canada’s famous openness to immigration is following much the same route. Amid record-high migrant intake, a poll last month by Leger found that 50 per cent of Canadians now thought immigration was too high. Just one year prior, not even a quarter of respondents were worried about immigration rates. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau came to power in 2015 at a time when climate change was regularly topping surveys of Canadians’ top political concern. Nine years later, a clear majority of respondents to an Angus Reid Institute poll said that they believed their government needed to cool it on the environmental policy, particularly the carbon tax. Sixty-three per cent agreed with the statement “cost of living concerns should come first, even if it damages policies to fight climate change.” The needle may even be moving on a political inclination that has proved remarkably resilient among both Liberal and Conservative camps going back to the early 1990s: Underfunding the military. The end of the Cold War just happened to coincide with Canada’s 1990s sovereign debt crisis. As a result, Ottawa took an axe to its armed forces and never looked back. The last time Canada ever met the current NATO standard of spending two per cent of GDP on defence was in 1990. Over the last 20 years, that figure was lucky to hit 1.4 per cent... the Angus Reid Institute found 53 per cent favouring a massive surge in defence spending to get Canada to the NATO target of two per cent"