Richard Wagner is a busted flush. What will we do about it?: Selley - "“I don’t know who paid for that, so how can there be a conflict of interest?” That hall-of-fame, mic-drop Canadian quote, delivered to National Post’s Christopher Nardi this week, came from no less an authority than the chief justice of the Supreme Court, Richard Wagner. The thing Wagner supposedly doesn’t know who paid for is a hideous bronze bust of himself that sits in the entrance hall of the Supreme Court building, where it breaks at least two longstanding traditions: one, that only former chief justices get publicly busted; and two, that the busts indicate their provenance. Let us pause here to consider the proposition Canada’s most senior jurist has placed before us, in public, as if he thought he was defending himself effectively. We are to believe he just showed up to work one morning to find himself immortalized in bronze in the lobby of his office, and not only did he not know where this bronze bust came from, but at no point in the many months since it showed up has he bothered to inquire where it came from... It’s not as though Wagner doesn’t take ownership of the court’s other general affairs. At the same press conference Wednesday where he disavowed any knowledge of how the unexpected statuary arrived, he updated reporters on the renovation schedule for the Supreme Court building, and confirmed the court would be hearing cases in Halifax in 2027. He also wants new robes for the justices, because that was definitely the squeaky wheel that needed greasing. Indeed, he often seems more preoccupied with the court’s general affairs and public image, both international and domestic, than he does with deciding cases. From 2015 to 2019, the Court heard an average of 63 appeals per year. In 2024 it heard 39. The Supreme Court’s 2024 “Year in Review” document delves into the court’s “outreach initiatives aimed at the public, students and educators, and legal professionals,” which efforts are apparently “essential to strengthening trust in the judicial process.” Headings include “Inspiring elementary and secondary students,” and “Supporting judicial education in Canada and around the world.” Readers learn of the justices’ various overseas trips, including to the Association of Francophone Constitutional Courts conference in Albania, which is about as francophone as Calgary. Wagner has no compunction about weighing in on political matters (while obviously insisting he would never do such a thing). “In an era where misinformation and disinformation are so pervasive, judges and courts must do everything they can to explain who they are and what they do. Trust in our institutions depends on it,” the court’s 2024 Year In Review document avers."
Death of French rapper Werenoi sparks debate about music and Islam - "French rapper Werenoi, whose real name was Jérémy Bana Owona, died on 17 May 2025, aged 31. He was France’s top album seller in 2023 and 2024, and his death shocked both the music industry and the public... “Werenoi was a Muslim, and we invite you to listen to his music as little as possible, out of respect for his faith," online rap publication Raplume said in a social media post that has since been deleted. “Avoid streaming Werenoi’s tracks, he was a Muslim, it’s for his faith”, one user said on X. A tribute to the artist by French rap radio station Skyrock elicited similar criticism... Werenoi’s music videos were removed from YouTube, but the audio versions still remain available on the platform. A source close to the rapper told French newspaper Le Parisien that the videos had only been temporarily hidden to allow the family to grieve. Werenoi’s producer later denied this claim... The teachings of Islam are up to interpretation. Many on social media argue that music is haram, meaning it is forbidden by Islamic law. Listening to Werenoi’s music after his death would bring him sins in his grave. But the word “music” does not actually appear in the Quran and many artists around the world are practising Muslims. “The prohibition of music by some branches of Islam is not based on any consensus but rather on controversial interpretations of certain suras and hadiths [statements attributed to the prophet Muhammad]”, musicologist Luis Velasco-Pufleau wrote in a 2017 blogpost... There have been similar controversies in the past. The death in 2019 of British rapper Cadet, who converted to Islam at 15, also ignited online discussions on the future of his music - much to the dismay of some users."
Muslim musicians having reduced prominence is due to racism and Islamophobia
Superman star calls out actors who star in superhero movies and then complain about them - "Rachel Brosnahan said that actors who have been in superhero films should not complain and “stand by” the work."
The awkward reason Canada is in the G7 - "A perennial criticism of the G7 — whose latest iteration is gathered right now in Alberta — is that nothing ever happens... Even some of its attendees have called it out as an impotent annual endeavour. Former U.K. prime minister Gordon Brown has called it the “G-Zero.” French President Emmanuel Macron has called it an “informal club.” And if you go back to the earliest days of the G7 summit, this all started right around the time Canada was first invited. The whole idea of a “Group of Seven” comes from France. In 1975, then French president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing proposed a coming together of the world’s dominant economic powers to try and get a handle on a global economy beset by inflation, energy crises and other “disorderly market conditions.” The meeting would end up being called Rambouillet, due to its being held at the Château de Rambouillet outside Paris. And this first meeting would include six members: France, the U.K., West Germany, the United States, Japan and Italy. And the French were very clear at the time that Canada couldn’t come. This was to be a serious meeting of financial heavyweights. Inviting second-tier nations to the table would serve only to dilute its effectiveness. “Only the big boys,” was how Canadian columnist Bogdan Kipling summed up the French position at the time. In telling then Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau that he couldn’t come, then U.S. president Gerald Ford said that France was concerned that “a further expansion of the original group would reduce the informality and flexibility of the occasion.” The Canada of 1975 easily ranked among the world’s wealthiest nations, but not quite at the level of the six countries who showed up to Rambouillet. Although Canadian GDP was approaching that of Italy, it was about half that of France’s, one third of Japan’s and one tenth that of the United States. In addition, Canada’s population was a fraction of the other members. The interim five decades have seen Canada fall further from any claim to be in a club comprising the world’s top seven economies, with China and India pulling well ahead of Canada. Canada’s GDP is now less than eight per cent of the United States’. The Rambouillet summit was only ever intended to be a one-off, but only seven months later U.S. President Gerald Ford would orchestrate the convening of a second meeting in Puerto Rico that would be quickly dubbed Rambouillet II... Canada’s economy still lagged behind the other original Rambouillet attendees, but the spot was assured for the singular reason that Ford wanted Canada there. Trudeau spoke English, he’d been in office for nine years and Canada’s economic interests were basically the same as the U.S., at least as compared to a table mostly filled with Europeans. “They felt that I could at least understand the point of view of the Americans, even though I didn’t always share it,” was how Trudeau described it in his 1993 Memoirs. Perhaps tellingly, Trudeau’s memoirs made no mention of any particular policy that ever resulted from one of the many subsequent G7 summits he would come to attend. Rather, the whole point was that he was allowed to go at all."
Why Don’t Rich People Just Retire? Experts Explain - "The Motivation Rarely Has to Do With Money–It’s About Purpose, Momentum, and Identity"
Clearly, rich people are just greedy
I asked 200 retirees for their best advice. The biggest tip had nothing to do with money. - "David John, a senior strategic policy advisor at AARP, said he's seen many people retire enthusiastically only to realize they were bored or lost their purpose. He said adjusting to the loss can be tough, and the lack of social connection in retirement often pushes people back to work. About half of respondents in an AARP survey of unretired people said their decision to return to work was based on having "a purpose in life, a social network, and getting out of the house.""
Clearly they have been brainwashed by capitalism and really returned to work because their finances were in trouble
School sparks debate for limiting parents to ‘one clap each’ at graduation
US officials forced to share bald JD Vance meme by denying tourist’s claim he was denied entry over photo - "Customs and Border Protection has confirmed that, no, agents did not stop a Norwegian traveler who showed them a meme of a bald Vice President JD Vance. “Fact Check: FALSE,” the CBP wrote on X. “Mads Mikkelsen was not denied entry for any memes or political reasons, it was for his admitted drug use.”... The story circulating online — first in Norwegian newspaper Nordlys and then picked up by British tabloids — claims that during Mikkelsen's encounter with the Department of Homeland Security, agents took his phone and found a meme depicting Vance as a bloated, smooth, bald man staring off into the distance... Mikkelsen does acknowledge that he was questioned about his use of drugs during the incident."
This didn't stop the US haters from continuing to spread their lies
Rebecca Mistereggen on X - "Norwegian media claimed that Mads Mikkelsen (21) was denied entry for having a humorous photo of JD Vance on his phone. Trump-haters have used the case to 'prove' that Trump is authoritarian. Now, border control is stepping forward to say that’s not true. FACT CHECK (by the @CBP ): FALSE Mads Mikkelsen was not denied entry for any memes or political reasons, it was for his admitted drug use. He also had a YT-Channel where he joked about shooting Trump."
New research suggests the magic of 10,000 steps a day is a myth - "People who walk more than 8,000 steps a day reduce their risk of premature death by half, compared to those who walk fewer than 5,000 steps – the threshold for a sedentary lifestyle. But beyond 8,000 steps, the benefits tend to plateau, which challenges the long-held belief in the magic of 10,000 steps a day. In fact, that benchmark wasn’t born of science, but of marketing... For ageing and heart health, there is mounting evidence that pace really matters. Simply converting a 14-minute daily stroll into a seven-minute brisk walk has been associated with a 14 per cent reduction in heart disease... A follow-up study suggested it is never too late to benefit from brisk walking. An inactive 60-year-old woman or man was modelled to gain around an additional year of life expectancy through simply introducing a ten-minute brisk walk into their daily routine. The power of brisk walking can also be seen in its ability to predict future health outcomes. It has been shown to be a stronger predictor of the risk of dying from heart disease than traditional predictors such as blood pressure and cholesterol, while also being a more powerful predictor than many other measures of lifestyle – including diet, obesity levels, and total physical activity. In fact, perhaps the single most informative question a doctor could ask their patient is: “How fast is your walking pace in comparison to other people?”"
I used to make £31k a year from Airbnb but am selling up as the guests are too difficult - "“I rented the flat out to a woman and her parents, and she was calling me day and night. She called because of a cobweb and told me I needed to come and sort it out, so I got on a train and went to clean the cobweb and took her a bunch of flowers to say, ‘Sorry’. When she left, I found she had broken things, and the place was a complete tip.” When she moved to Kensington, Jaimie used a local cleaner who would also wash and change the bedding, costing £100 to £150 a time. “But, as [the Airbnb] started becoming less profitable, I felt like I had to do the cleaning and washing myself as I wasn’t making any money. I get £550-an-hour in consulting for my actual job, and this didn’t feel like a profitable use of my time.” In addition, Jaimie found a lack of warmth and detail in 80 per cent of enquiries, which didn’t fill her with confidence that they would be good guests, and there was an entitlement and disregard compared to before. “There was a change from ‘I’m a guest’ to ‘This is mine and I’ll do what I like.’ It was people who wanted to save money and not pay for a hotel. They treated it as they wished without any consequences.” She was getting a lot of spam messages from China, asking for three-month stays but wanting to book or have conversations outside the Airbnb app. “I also noticed an increase in enquiries wanting insane discounts that were totally unviable, accompanied by sob stories about why they needed it cheaper.” Her final guests were the nail in the coffin. “I always message people before they come and say the flat is on the first floor. This lady was coming with her two elderly relatives, so I emailed her to say there were stairs. When she checked in, she said she didn’t know there were stairs and wanted a full refund. “I have a strict cancellation policy that is made clear on the website, so I said ‘no’. She left me a bad review that tanked my rankings on Airbnb and meant I ended up with a two-month void period, which I’d never had before and cost me over £6,000 in missed revenue.” When Jaimie asked Airbnb to take the review down, they said the guest was entitled to her opinion. “[This] bad review was by another Airbnb host, who had properties in Brazil, so she would have known the impact. At that point, the property was on the market for sale, and I had accepted an offer already... While it might have been profitable at first, Jaimie now has no regrets about as it means she can now focus on her job and career full-time. “I decided I wanted to stay focused on what I do best – my entrepreneurial activities – and not be distracted by something I no longer enjoyed.”"
How Canada Wins: Bespoke transit the solution to our traffic woes - "Argo’s new busing line allows users to request a transit ride near their location, with an app or phone call. Argo’s smart routing system groups passengers going the same way. The rider is then taken to an existing transit connection, or close to their final destination — all under one standard fare. In the three months since launching its service in Bradford West Gwillimbury, Ont., Argo doubled ridership, having now replaced all fixed bus routes once operated by a private contractor... We are building a future where public transit is more convenient than driving, but as affordable as taking the bus. We fully integrate with existing transit lines and fare systems, so that integration lets us deliver faster deployments, lower costs and a better quality of service. We’re dynamically routing our vehicles and grouping riders intelligently... With traditional public transit, half of the time spent in transit is spent on 10 per cent of the distance. This is the “first and last mile” problem, of getting to and from a fixed route transit line, and waiting for the bus or the train. With a typical ride share service, you get picked up directly at your door with a private driver, but the cost of that is prohibitive for most people to rely on for day-to-day mobility. So our smart routing technology dynamically routes the buses, and groups riders efficiently, so people can get picked up near their door, while still paying a standard transit fare, with the economics of traditional public transit...
There are places in the city where public transit is less prevalent. That’s exactly the problem that our solution is best for. So regardless of whether there’s a high level of existing public transit lines in the area or a very low level, our system can dynamically route and pick people up near their door. And if it’s an area with sparse existing transit coverage, then our system can carry the full burden of the transit experience … we’ll take them all the way to their final destination. This is a solution for municipalities where a transit line needs to run every 20 minutes, though there isn’t enough demand. In areas where there are existing high capacity transit lines, then we’ll focus more on solving that “first and last mile,” and feeding people into those transit lines... Even the most robust transit networks in the country, for many people, aren’t accessible. Those who have mobility issues, and have trouble getting to the bus stop. Those who work off hours and on fixed route systems, have reduced service levels. Even a healthy and active 25-year-old in a major city would find walking to the bus stop in the peak of winter, waiting for a bus, a major limiting factor to their mobility."
Alberta should think twice before breaking from the Canada Pension Plan - "When the CPP was established in 1966, Quebec opted to go it alone, creating the Quebec Pension Plan (QPP). Both CPP and QPP were starting from scratch. From this equal starting point, we now have the benefit of almost 60 years of experience and data to provide lessons we can learn about the coexistence of separate provincial and federal pension plans... in Quebec: in 2011, it was forced to raise its contribution rates for the QPP by 0.9 per cent above that of the CPP. As R. Kent Weaver and Daniel Beland wrote in 2017, “In effect, Quebec workers and employers have to pay higher contributions than their counterparts in the nine other provinces because of a decision made in the mid-1960s to create QPP in the name of provincial economic development.”... The CPPIB’s investment arm, CPP Investments, had a 10 per cent annualized net return on investments of $570 billion over the 10 years up to March 31, 2023. For the QPP, returns via Quebec’s Caisse de dépôt et placement (CDPQ) was eight per cent on $402 billion over 10 years up to December 31, 2022. That’s 20 per cent less."
Economic nationalism is politically popular, but costs money
Bolt CEO explains why he just killed unlimited PTO at the company - ""When time off is undefined, the good ones don't take PTO. The bad ones take too much," the CEO wrote in a message shared to his LinkedIn profile. "This leads to A-performer burnout. B-performer luxuries. And feelings of unfairness across the board." "So we're flipping the script: no more confusion. Every Bolter now gets 4 weeks of paid vacation (yes, the traditional corporate standard), with the opportunity to accrue more with tenure. Not optional," Breslow added. "We mandate everyone take all 4 weeks off."... a 2022 report from job search site Joblist found that full-time US employees with unlimited PTO took an average of 10 days off, compared to an average of 11 paid days off work across all vacation policies. A common criticism of an unlimited vacation time policy is that, without the guidance of a set number of days, employees can be unsure how much PTO to take."
These 7 Countries Consume The Most Pizza In 2024 - "The country eating the most pizza per capita isn’t Italy or the United States — it’s Norway. Residents of this Scandinavian country annually eat about 11.4 kilograms (25 pounds) of pizza. Its popularity has risen in Oslo and other cities, especially frozen ones. Fresh food options aren’t as vast in Norway as in different locations, so it’s common to find pizza in household freezers. Which countries consume the most unconventional pizza? Don’t be surprised to see pies with salad or sweet corn in Norway. Adding cabbage and slaw makes the pizza refreshing, so it could be a great summer dish. You may also see Norwegian pizza with paprika and oregano on top... While the U.S. loves pizza, the nation up north has a slight edge. Research shows pizza consumption in Canada is higher per capita than in America, though both nations eat plenty of pie."
Microsoft bids farewell to the Windows blue screen of death after 40 years - "it was rolling out a simplified user interface in its place – a black screen of death... “We are streamlining the unexpected restart experience,” David Weston, Microsoft’s vice president of enterprise and OS security, said in a blog post. “We are also adding quick machine recovery, a recovery mechanism for PCs that cannot restart successfully. This change is part of a larger continued effort to reduce disruption in the event of an unexpected restart.”... The rollout will reduce the wait time during restarts to two seconds for most users"
Starbucks barista whose OCD caused her to hoard trash at work sues for unfair dismissal - "A Starbucks barista whose obsessive-compulsive disorder makes it extremely difficult for her to throw things away claims she was fired after requesting special accommodations for her condition. Part of Nilani Thiyagarajah’s job was “maintaining cleanliness and organization in the store”... her OCD results in an inability to “regulate behaviors related to perfectionism, time management, and discarding items,” the lawsuit states. In addition to compelling Thiyagarajah to hoard trash, the 40-year-old’s complaint says the condition “affects her concentration, focus, memory, [and] ability to complete tasks,” which “substantially limits [her] major life activities.”"
Acting Transport Minister Jeffrey Siow on COE system, private-hire cars and other transport issues - "“The reality is there won’t be space for every Singaporean to own a car in Singapore,” he told reporters in an interview on June 11, noting that the COE system is how the Government is allocating this “scarce good”. Touching on a range of other transport issues, Mr Siow also sought to counter the narrative that private-hire vehicle companies are driving up COE prices, thereby depriving Singaporeans of the chance to own a car... On whether private-hire cars have driven up COE premiums, Mr Siow said this discussion needs to take into account the fact that private-hire vehicles have given people access to private transport on a pay-per-use basis... Noting that the economics of a private-hire car are “much more efficient”, Mr Siow asked: “If you had one COE left to allocate, is it better to allocate it to a private car owner, who then drives maybe two trips a day and leaves the car in the garage? “Or is it better to share the car among a much larger group of Singaporeans who can have access to the use of a car when they need it? Surely it must be the latter, right?”"
When you have technocrats acting as politicians
Rubber meets the road: A day in the life of a PHV driver - "This amounts to about "600 to 700km a week - plus or minus," and when you extrapolate the figure over an entire year, arrive at a total of around 35,000 to 36,000km in annual mileage. The average Singaporean driver does 17,000km."
On average each PHV vehicle replaces 2 personal vehicles. There is no minimum mileage for PHV drivers in Singapore. So there is definitely a marginal effect of adding low mileage PHV drivers who mainly use their vehicles as personal ones
Are some car buyers ‘masquerading’ as private-hire drivers to secure more financing? | The Straits Times - "Seven or eight in 10 customers at Carro, a used-car marketplace, take out loans to finance their car purchases, and the majority of them register these cars as private-hire or corporate vehicles. Mr Aaron Tan, co-founder and chief executive of Carro and Genie Financial Services, revealed these figures... buyers of privately owned cars can take loans of only up to 60 per cent to 70 per cent of the market value of a vehicle. In comparison, businesses or private-hire car drivers can borrow up to 90 per cent to 100 per cent of the vehicle’s cost, he added... Mr Christopher Tan, a fellow roundtable panellist and senior transport correspondent at ST, noted that private-hire and company vehicles formed 37 per cent of car registrations from January to September. He said that while the population of such cars has ballooned, the number of privately owned cars has shrunk. According to Land Transport Authority figures, the number of chauffeured private-hire cars surged from 614 to 46,477 between 2013 and 2022, while the pool of privately owned cars fell from 582,296 to 542,145... The surge in private-hire vehicles, said Mr Tan from Carro, has raised the question of whether some drivers are masquerading as private-hire car drivers. He added that some of his firm’s customers work elsewhere, including in the civil service, and provide private-hire car services part-time. Mr Say said buying private-hire vehicles via easy financing has become a way for the industry to get around strict financing requirements. He recounted the Government’s decision to increase deposit requirements for car purchases in early 2013, which caused COE prices to tumble. Noting the significantly higher interest rates incurred when repaying these private-hire vehicle loans, Mr Christopher Tan said more drivers would have to make many casual for-hire trips to make up for the higher instalment payments for their cars. The “unhindered expansion of this new breed of cars” will lead to increased road use, congestion and carbon emissions, he added. This may not be as desirable as having privately owned cars with drivers who make only a few trips daily... Recalling the authorities’ decision to remove taxis from the COE bidding process in 2012, Mr Say said this sent a signal that Category A should be reserved for private owners. Since then, taxis have drawn from the pool of Open category COEs and pay the Category A prevailing quota premium, a moving average of COE prices in the preceding three months. “If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, looks like a duck... most likely, it’s a duck, so I think private-hire vehicles should be treated probably the same way as taxis,” he added... Alluding to another reason why private-hire firms were expanding their fleets aggressively, Mr Christopher Tan highlighted that there is also the flexibility of converting private-hire vehicles into private cars, but this option is not open to taxis. On the whole, Associate Professor Walter Theseira, head of the master of management programme for urban transportation at SUSS, said COE prices no longer reflect the real social and economic value of driving. There is no accurate measure of the long-term value of various vehicle types in Singapore, he said. Hence, the system has no good basis of judging whether the authorities should assign more COE quota to private-hire cars or taxis, compared with privately owned vehicles."
