Electric buses are a disaster for every Canadian city that tries them - "Regina’s adoption of electric buses has been a disaster for the public. It’s the latest Canadian city to find this out the hard way... Aside from being more expensive to run — defeating their original purpose of saving on gas money — Singh said they were “not for the Saskatchewan weather.” He added that four buses had to be pulled off the line and re-charged the previous Friday, as they had fallen to 15 per cent battery. “I’m not in favour of electric buses at all,” he said. “For the winter, their battery dies very quickly, and they can just run for two, three hours, that’s all,” he said. The buses weren’t good for the summer either, because the charge couldn’t reliably last. This was always a predictable outcome, particularly since Edmonton already wasted millions on the same kind of failed project... Edmonton has 60 of these buses in its fleet of 1,000. In December 2023, it was reported that only one quarter of these were in working order due to a range of problems. The company that built them, Proterra, filed for bankruptcy. Edmonton joined in on the bankruptcy proceedings, claiming that it was owed $82 million for the bus fiasco. Edmonton lawyers claimed that “None of the buses have ever achieved 328 km on a single charge,” and that “On average, the bus range has been approximately 165 km in the winter and, at best, 250 km in warmer weather.”... Directly to the north of Edmonton, the suburb of St. Albert ran another costly experiment with electric buses made by the Chinese EV company BYD. It acquired seven units in 2017 and 2018 and received a number of awards for its environmental efforts. The reality was less glamorous: three units needed battery replacements within the first five years of service; they travelled roughly half the distance in a month compared to their diesel counterparts; they were initially estimated to have a daily driving range of 233 kilometres but only reached 110 in the winter; their lifespan was downgraded to 12 years from 18... These same lessons are learned again and again. In 2022, the feds and the government of Manitoba helped Winnipeg purchase 40 electric buses, which the city claimed would drive for “10 to 15 hours.” Earlier trials in Winnipeg showed that heating the cabin resulted in “performance losses”; adding a diesel heater limited those losses to 20 per cent or less... over in Saskatoon, city council has been trying to grow the electric fleet. It’s unclear why: city staff have warned that electric buses can’t last a full day of service on one charge, and that it takes 1.2 electric buses to replace a single diesel bus. Finally, Toronto, which also started its electric bus journey in 2017, is also reporting failure. A city report from July buries the unflattering figures under a deluge of emissions-reduction statistics: from the beginning, these buses had shorter ranges than diesel units, which renders them unusable for many existing bus routes. And because of their finicky charging requirements and limited range, the electric buses “face challenges in responding to emergency subway closures, route diversions, and other unexpected events.”... Many of these electric bus trials have been supported by the federal Zero Emission Transit Fund. Interestingly, it doesn’t seem to be logging these problems: regarding the Regina buses, “no performance issues were reported in progress meetings” between the city and the infrastructure department. Indeed, across all of its electric bus projects, the department “has not been made aware of any performance issues related to weather conditions.” If electric buses were really a better deal, there would be no issue in switching to them. But that’s absolutely not been the case. When it comes to transit, prioritizing climate benchmarks means punishing civilian transit users. It’s time these city councils put people first."
How the Yonge subway route change will benefit developers
Clearly, this has nothing to do with NIMBYS complaining about the impact of construction. We cannot have high density housing around subway lines because developers will benefit, so we should get more single family homes there instead. Developers paying for infrastructure is bad - homeowners should pay for it instead. And saving money while building more stations than originally planned is bad, because the government needs to spend more money. It can always pay for it by "taxing the 'rich'"
Metrolinx drops Deutsche Bahn, Aecon from GO expansion - "GO expansion, previously known as regional express rail, is the province’s single largest transit project and was launched under the Ontario Liberals, and expanded under the Ford government."
Time to bash Ford for neglecting public ransit
How Doug Ford and Metrolinx dimmed Toronto’s once-bright transit future : r/ontario - "The mishandling of Toronto’s transit and the involvement of Metrolinx predates Dog Ford by years."
"This is true, but Doug Ford also deserves a lot of blame. People forget that the hasty announcement of the Ontario Line cancelled / heavily revised plans that were already well underway, which ultimately set things back further."
""well underway" is overstating the status of the original DRL plan. They were at 15% of design work complete for a much shorter line, and funding wasn't committed. Committing funding to building a much longer line isn't something we should complain about."
"Seriously, we would have been riding the first stage of the Eglinton Crosstown ten years ago if not for the liberals intentionally delaying the construction and using a P3"
"Mx and IO seem to manage a lot of contracts poorly which are not P3. All projects are designed and built by the private sector, so blaming this on P3 seems an easy scapegoat when poor negotiating and contract management seem to be the problem."
"Even before the P3 problems they delayed the schedule by five years and cancelled the western section, the blame is not just on the P3."
Toronto vs. Delhi metro system (2002-2025) : r/toronto - "Other cities such as Madrid figured out ways to build subway projects much faster so that the same politicians approving the project could get credit for it and held accountable if things go wrong. According to this article, Madrid built 120 km of subways in 10 years. This report by stephen wickens also mentions the madrid miracle as well. If they can do it in madrid, there should be no reason why we cant do it here."
I was surprised no one claimed India could only do this because of slavery, poor labour protections and/or no environmental protections
Toronto vs. Delhi metro system (2002-2025) : r/toronto - "Toronto/Ontario/Canada is one of the NIMBY-est places in the world. The idea that big oil cares about a miniscule amount of petroleum consumption in/around Toronto to exert influence is hilarious given that they struggle to get national pipelines built. You don't need to look very far to realize that we did it to ourselves."
Toronto vs. Delhi metro system (2002-2025) : r/toronto - "Even if you point out how unambitious and incompetent Canadians are here you’ll get the same default responses of 1) At least we’re not America and 2) but _____ city is bigger and Toronto is just different somehow. Like it’s not a surprise nothing ever gets better here because when people here ask for better public transit all we’re told are the reasons why it can’t happen and to just fucking move if we don’t like it. Bitch-made society I swear to god this city and country can’t be saved."
"Canadian protectionism of keeping “the Canadian way of things” is whats holding the country back. how can you improve and make a change if every time you bring a discussion it gets shut down. ugh i don’t know man im really hoping for things to change soon :("
"Woah. I've never heard anyone but me talk about that first part. It's also my main complaint about Canada as a whole. I call it Canadian complacency and it is BY FAR the single biggest obstacle to any sort of progress in this country. Wild"
"Canadians sometimes forget that there are other countries out there other than Canada and the US. As long as we refuse to hold politicians accountable for their incompetence, things wont change."
"I dunno about 1). LA built a full metro system in the same time that Toronto lost a line. The Bay Area added a dozen rail extensions, built two new lines, and converted a commuter line into an electric RER one. Seattle built 1.5 soon to be two lines and a bunch of extensions. Toronto would have been in much better shape if it were more like those American cities."
Surprisingly, no one pointed to the US and proclaimed that they were worse, so there was nothing to worry about
Transit violence rising across Canada — in some cities by nearly 300% - "In the case of Dyckhoff, he said the attack began when he told the man behind him on the subway to turn down his music. "He just wasn't having it, so it escalated," he said."
Clearly, as long as crime is still below 90s levels, anyone who complains about crime in any way is ignorant and ungrateful
Time to force more people to take public transit instead of driving
Why a transit megaproject in Montreal should be a model for Canada - The Globe and Mail - "If you live in Quebec, especially Montreal, you’ve heard a lot about the project – mostly bad news about delays, cost overruns and mechanical issues. The REM has had them. But they have to be put in perspective: graded on a curve, it’s at the head of the class. By a mile. The REM’s promoter, an arm of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec pension fund, said it could build an entirely new transit system absurdly quickly, at an insanely low cost. After the delays and cost overruns, what’s been the result? An entirely new transit system built very quickly, at improbably low cost. The Eglinton Crosstown LRT, a 19-km sort-of subway being built in Toronto by Ontario, broke ground in 2011 and still isn’t open. The REM didn’t break ground until 2018. The budget for the Eglinton Crosstown is now $13.08-billion, or nearly $700-million per km. The 15.6-km Ontario Line, also being built in Toronto by the province, has an estimated cost of $27.2-billion – well over $1-billion per km. Montreal’s Blue line metro extension, which is supposed to open in 2031, has a budget of $7.6-billion for five stations and 6 km of tunnelled track. That’s also well over $1-billion per km. Most of the rest of the developed world builds transit for far less. Until recently, so did Canada. The REM marks a return to that better past. Even after its cost overruns, Quebec’s Auditor-General expects the REM to cost $9.4-billion. That’s just $140-million per km... The REM’s secret sauce is that its developer – the Caisse – has a long-term financial bottom line. It has to balance maximizing ridership and minimizing costs. Politicians, by contrast, tend to have short-term political bottom lines. They have a habit of making politically driven choices on what transit to build, where and how. Only the next generation of office-holders see the financial fallout. For example, politicians always want transit tunnelled because that’s what voters and drivers want. But tunnelling is expensive, complex and slow, and budgets are finite. Build as expensively as possible, and you can’t afford to build as much, or at all. The Caisse pitched a follow-on project, the REM de l’Est, a 32-km line from Montreal’s downtown to the east end of the island. It was announced in 2020 – but when politicians demanded that some elevated sections be underground, the Caisse did its sums and pulled out. That left provincial and municipal politicians free to resume blue-skying their expensive alternatives. What’s been built? Nothing."
Damn slave labour! This is why public transit needs to be non-profit, so greedy companies can't profit off the public!
More Transit Southern Ontario on X - "Trip data for the Finch West LRT is now public and has been analyzed by @SwanBoatSteve. The average speed comes in at 13.5km/h. For reference the average speed for on street segments of the ION in Kitchener Waterloo is 18-19km/h."
Jedwin Mok on X - "At $240M/km, Finch West LRT is…
- MORE expensive per-km than the Sheppard Subway
- 2X the per-km cost of the Montreal REM & metros in other developed nations
… for a tram that’s SLOWER than a bus in traffic.
Let’s not mislead the public; Line 6 should be the 536 Finch West!"
Canadian transit projects, mired in delays and cost overruns, force a rethink on what’s gone wrong - The Globe and Mail - "a report from four researchers at the University of Toronto’s School of Cities shows that the cost per kilometre to build rail transit in Canada is more than 60 per cent higher than the global average. The authors, who blame this on factors including designs that are overbuilt and the heavy use of consultants, warn that soaring costs are undercutting efforts to create meaningful transit capacity. They note that Canadian officials have reacted to cost increases by shrinking transit projects to make them cheaper, rather than by tackling the reasons for price inflation. “If construction costs can be meaningfully reduced, more ambitious projects with greater benefit and larger scope can be built at lower costs,” they wrote. Not all Canadian transit projects go sideways. The Canada Line SkyTrain project in Vancouver was completed on time in 2009, albeit under the looming deadline of the city hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics. Montreal’s 16-kilometre Réseau express métropolitain had a few teething problems when it opened last year, but nothing like the issues seen on other projects. And other transit expansions have begun to look better as they recede in the rear-view mirror. Although the extension of Toronto’s subway to the suburb of Vaughan, Ont., that opened in 2017 went over budget, and was one reason Queen’s Park took responsibility for transit construction away from the Toronto Transit Commission, its price per kilometre was far lower than for the Ontario Line now being built by the province... Experts say that transit approvals and design are highly politicized. There’s also been so little transit built in the last generation in Canada that governments have lost the knowledge needed to oversee a project, even one built by the private sector. And methods used on some early projects held up as success stories would no longer fly politically. Toronto transit watcher and blogger Steve Munro notes that much of the city’s east-west subway line was built in the 1960s using a method called cut and cover. This involves digging a trench, building subway infrastructure in it and then capping it. “The entire Bloor line was built north of Bloor [Street] and demolished everything in its path,” he said. “You can’t do that any more.” Another development is that city transit agencies no longer do their own expansion work. In recent decades, governments in Canada and elsewhere have relied heavily on arrangements known as public-private partnerships. These were once lauded, but in the public transit world, they have now fallen from favour, for governments and the private sector... “The people of Ottawa now face the prospect of a rail system being maintained in circumstances where the relationship between the City and the maintainer is largely dysfunctional (and bearing the costs of any disputes that result)”... the model faltered as it ran up against the sheer size and unpredictable complexity of large public transit projects. “It started with hospitals, and it moved into other types of social infrastructure, and in those instances worked generally okay. And then it came over to transit, and it just hit a wall,” Prof. Siemiatycki said. “And you can see it right across the country.”... Although eager to offload risk through the P3 model, politicians have remained keen to insert themselves into transit planning – which doesn’t help keep prices down or projects on time... Politicians also throw sand in the gears by micromanaging aspects of design, said Marco Chitti, a fellow in the transportation and land use program at New York University who has studied Canadian transit. He noted that elected officials can be susceptible to hyperlocal concerns that complicate a project. Drivers might want a transit line buried, so as not to interfere with traffic, increasing the price tag by billions. Residents might then complain about plans for an exhaust outlet for that line near their property, forcing a cascading series of design changes that add cost. And then homeowners might raise concerns about vibration, forcing very deep construction that costs massively more. Mr. Chitti said that a loss of transit-building knowledge exacerbates these issues, as leaders make political decisions with little sense of the impact on a project."
Clearly there needs to be more consultation and respect for stakeholders' concerns
Governments keep pushing public transit Canadians don’t want - "Recent data from Statistics Canada show that, despite higher fuel taxes and billions of dollars of subsidies, government attempts to shift commuters from personal vehicles to mass transit have largely failed. Yet planners stubbornly continue to act on projections this shift is occurring, pouring more public funds into mass transit while closing traffic lanes and erecting barriers explicitly designed to strangle traffic flows. Endless traffic jams encourage drivers and businesses to leave city cores and commute longer distances in the suburbs, the very opposite of what planners say they want. Governments need to respond to how Canadians actually commute, or risk further alienating themselves from taxpayers and commuters... New subway lines have had little impact on commuting patterns partly because of the unreliability of service in some cities... Traffic delays encourage frustrated commuters to move from urban centres to car-friendly suburbs and rural Canada. The shift of people and businesses out of city cores is clear in both the rising number of commutes by car and truck and the distance covered by these commutes. Statcan reports long commutes, those of one hour or more spent in a car or truck, have risen from 835,700 in 2016 to 897,400 in 2023. This is the opposite of what governments had in mind when they invested in mass transit and raised carbon taxes. The exodus from cities leaves their cores increasingly inhabited by new immigrants and young people who cannot afford sky-high house prices, as well as a growing rump of vagrants, panhandlers and drug addicts. The latter groups make urban living and public transit even less attractive to most Canadians, especially women. A notable trend across North America this summer was retailers, from high-end venues like Nordstrom in San Francisco to the lowly McDonald’s in Ottawa’s Byward Market, closing their downtown outlets because of rampant vagrancy and shoplifting as well as a glut of half-empty office towers. But governments have generally ignored the deteriorating physical environment of their downtowns as they focus on virtue-signalling regulations such as banning natural gas stoves and single-use plastics that in fact have little environmental impact. Traffic planning has been based on the bureaucracy’s belief it has a self-anointed green mandate to dictate to Canadians how they will travel to work. The result is that governments have spent billions on little-used projects while paralyzing driving in downtown cores across the country, alienating millions of Canadians they are supposed to serve. Governments evidently subscribed to the Field of Dreams approach to mass transit: “Build it and they will come.” But the public’s reaction has been “Build it and we will shun.”"
Only 10% of commuters use it, according to the subheadline
The ‘noble lies’ of the BBC - spiked - "between them, Your Party and the Greens represent the two faces of utopianism: chaos and fantasy. Organisations, communes or countries that are founded on the belief in the inherent goodness of human beings always fail. This is because they won’t admit that many people are inherently motivated by selfishness, greed and the desire for power. Your Party is already in a mess because of all three of these timeless human foibles. The Green Party, while projecting a more libertarian and ethereal form of idealism, also thinks that our problems have simple remedies: by opening up the borders, legalising hard drugs, making most things free, taxing the super-rich and everyone being really nice to each other. That fantasy will turn into a nightmare should the Greens ever get into power. Utopianism always ends in disaster and despotism because if you only assume the best in people, the worst types inevitably rise to the top. Before any of that happens, these two factions will likely falter, and for two different reasons. Your Party doesn’t understand that multiculturalism and socialism are incompatible; people don’t want to share with strangers who have different values. The Green Party doesn’t understand that liberty and equality represent two mutually antagonistic goals. You can have some of one and some of the other, but never all of both."
Communists plot takeover of Your Party
Zarah Sultana heckled as Your Party row erupts over Muslim views on trans rights - "Neither Mr Corbyn nor Ms Sultana will lead the party after members last weekend opted for a “collective leadership” model, which critics likened to a Soviet-style politburo."
The collapse of Corbyn and Sultana's Your Party is delicious - "For hard left, “the right” is always to blame for everything. It’s never, of course, that they are petulant, idiotic, useless fools. Still, there is hope. The cry has apparently gone out to comrades that it’s time to jump aboard the Greens, now they are led by super-duper Zack Polanski. It has a certain logic. Because a bunch of loons have shown conclusively just how loony they are, supporters of loonies everywhere should switch to a third loon who has yet to provide irrefutable proof that he too is a loon."
Iqbal Mohamed quits Jeremy Corbyn-led Your Party before conference - "A second MP has quit Jeremy Corbyn’s Your Party days before its first conference. Iqbal Mohamed resigned from the Left-wing party on Friday after he was rebuked by Zarah Sultana, its co-founder, over a series of gender-critical social media posts. The MP for Dewsbury and Batley in West Yorkshire, is the second to quit within a week after Adnan Hussain announced his departure last Friday... An initial meeting was held with the Independent Alliance and Jeremy Corbyn in May, months before Ms Sultana was openly part of the project, it is understood. MPs were reassured several times in the meeting the project would be a politically “broad church” and that they would be at the helm of the party’s direction. It was acknowledged in the meetings that the Left had a “tendency towards infighting”"
Your Party advisers quit with a swipe at its ‘hostile’ MPs - "Three advisers to Your Party have resigned from their roles with a swipe at the group’s “hostile” MPs. Andrew Feinstein, Beth Winter and Jamie Driscoll set up MOU Operations Ltd in April to support the creation of Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s hard-Left party. Your Party had its public launch in July but its first few months have been marred by a steady flow of gaffes and feuds between its founding MPs. Last month, the party almost collapsed entirely amid a row between Mr Corbyn and Ms Sultana, who had launched a paid membership portal without permission. Six days later, a new membership portal was created by Mr Corbyn after the two reconciled. But the donations made to the first portal have remained in a bank account run by MOU amid a briefing war and threats of legal action... They added that they had “tried many times” to hand everything over to Your Party and suggested key people in the group had failed to understand data protection laws."
B.C. man ticketed for driving pink Barbie Jeep while impaired during morning commute - "A Prince George, B.C., man received a 90-day driving prohibition after he was spotted by police driving an unusual vehicle on a street on Friday morning. On Sept. 5, an officer was on patrol in the area of 15th Avenue and Nicholson Street at 9 a.m. when they spotted a man driving a pink toy car down the street... The toy appears to be a Power Wheels Barbie Jeep Wrangler. Kasper Lincoln told Global News he’d borrowed the toy, which belongs to his roommate’s daughter, to go get a Slurpee. “It’s not like it was a high-speed chase,” he said. “I waited until it was safe, and when I crossed the road I was doing my hand signals.” During the stop, the police officer believed the driver to be impaired and found that the driver had a suspended licence. The driver was arrested for prohibited driving and he then provided two breath samples that were both over the legal limit and was subsequently issued a 90-day driving prohibition, police said. Lincoln said he hadn’t had anything to drink that morning and had just woken up. “I didn’t think you could get a DUI in a Barbie truck,” he said. He added that the Barbie Jeep was not impounded and had been returned to his roommate’s daughter. RCMP said any vehicle on a roadway that is powered by anything other than muscular power fits into the definition of a motor vehicle and requires a licensed driver and insurance."
Why nurturing the gut microbiota could resolve depression and anxiety - "Numerous psychiatric and neurological conditions have been linked to disturbances in people’s gut microbiota — the community of trillions of microorganisms that live symbiotically in the gastrointestinal tract. These are just correlations, but studies in rodents show compelling evidence of causality, and other animal research points to multiple pathways through which the microbiota communicates with the brain. Moseson’s experience, and others like it, offer preliminary evidence that microbiota-based treatments can be beneficial for people with mood disorders, such as depression and anxiety. The procedure need not be a faecal transplant — good outcomes have also been observed with probiotics (microbial species or strains that have a beneficial effect on the microbiota) and diet. But how these interventions work is not clear. Only with large-scale human trials, including investigation of mechanisms, will researchers be able to say which microbes work, for which conditions, and in which individuals and circumstances."
Jonathon P Sine on X - "There are more American undergrads in STEM than one might expect based on "the discourse" Split of undergrads in science + engineering + medicine is roughly the same in the US and China."
Cody Moser on X - "Half a million, or one third, of the US students in "Science" are in psychology. No, we are not keeping up."
I've often heard that small cuts used to be incredibly dangerous and often lethal due to infection... but I've had bleeding wounds hundreds of times and never had an infection, even without using modern first aid. Is this point overblown? : r/AskHistorians - " Even very uncommon lethal outcomes can become very deadly when the events happen enough times, like minor cuts do. Thus, while individual minor cuts were not each individually particularly dangerous in the pre-antibiotic era, minor cuts were collectively much more dangerous than today. Indeed, people still expressed surprise and horror at how such a trivial thing could turn so catastrophic so quickly. However, the reasons why even minor cuts were collectively much more terrifying have to do with microbial ecology and two profound changes that antibiotics made to the communities of bacteria that we live with. The first and most obvious thing that antibiotics do is provide caregivers with tools that they can use to effectively treat cuts that go sour and could turn dangerous, allowing those cuts to heal without any of the horror or death that stalked our very recent ancestors. Before penicillin, there was in fact very little that people could do beyond hope for an effective immune response. Indeed you may have even had cuts, particularly in childhood, that just never made a mark on your memory having been made trivial by support from an antibiotic cream. The second is more complex, but may be even more important for explaining why cuts were indeed much more dangerous in the pre-antibiotic era, and relates to the paradox of virulence. Virulence is an abstraction of the harm caused to hosts by a pathogen, and that harm not great for the pathogen, after all why hurt or lose a useful host? You would thus expect to find that less virulent pathogens succeed more, and more virulent pathogens should disappear as they get outcompeted. However, in studying virulence with basic research, we've found that virulence is almost always is part of helping the pathogen find a new host. Thus the generalized resolution to the paradox is that so long as harm to the host causes the parasite to spread effectively enough, it doesn't really matter how much harm is caused to the host - as the parasite will have already found new hosts to spread from. For example, the Vibrio cholerae in your gut could succeed more by turning you into a poop volcano even if doing so dehydrates you to death, if this strategy can get the milky white concentrate of its daughters that you explosively eject into the water of your friends and neighbors. At the same time, helpful bacteria don't have nearly the same need to spread as pathogenic ones, as they keep their hosts happy and alive and can stick around for longer through an alternative strategy known as mutualism. The spectrum between virulence and mutualism can be seen as a trade off between two strategies, or of course often a mix between the two. A critter existing in community with another one can care little for its host and be as infectious as possible at the host's expense, thus increasing virulence. In this strategy it doesn't matter so much that the host becomes quickly unsuitable because the parasite has already found replacement hosts sneezed on, or transmitted to, by the time that happens. Or it can do the opposite and try its best to reduce impact on the host, spread infectious particles slowly or even not at all, and thus not need to spread too quickly because it will last a while in each host. A good example of these tradeoffs that is directly relevant for your question can be found in Staphylococcus aureus. Before the 1940s, we lived with Staphylococcus aureus strains on our skin that existed in a complex mixture of mutualistic and virulent strategies. It is a strain that plays an important role in keeping skin healthy and chasing off potentially dangerous newcomers to the skin microbiome, however mobile genetic elements like plasmids, phages, and SAPIs would carry virulence factors with which it could stab its human host in the back. These virulence factors include tools with which to fight the human immune system, such as toxins for killing the flesh around a wound to prevent the immune system from accessing the infection while making the wounds pussy and infectious. This would allow these mobile genetic elements to use strains that may have previously been living happily with us to infect new human hosts at the expense of the current one, with infections often starting from a seemingly innocuous minor wound. Before the widespread adoption of penicillin, one in every 20 people who died was killed by a staph infection, including in contexts like this. However, perhaps the most important thing that antibiotics did is that they applied very strong selective pressure against any vaguely virulent strategy. Suddenly anyone with a nasty bug could just pop a pill and reset their skin, both saving their life and also preventing the spread of the bacteria, which drove these mobile genetic elements towards extinction. Thus, following the model, the observed sudden decrease in both virulence and transmissibility of pathogenic strains after the 1940s makes a lot of sense. The strains that would have made a small cut dangerous just weren't circulating anymore. However, the sudden increase in both virulence and transmissibility of virulent strains that we’ve seen in multi-drug resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains also makes a terrifying sort of sense. While the tools that bacteria use to gain antibiotic resistance are almost entirely different from the tools that they use for virulence, they are indeed often found in the same critters. In the same way, antibiotic resistant pathogens aren't just dangerous because we can't treat them any more, they are dangerous because we also can't use this critical tool to prevent them from spreading. As soon as they can spread, they can evolve to fill these ancient and horrifying ecological niches again."
Sadiq Khan threatens to bankrupt Ulez fare evaders - "Ulez is one of the most controversial policies Sir Sadiq has introduced during his eight years as Mayor of London. The Labour politician, who is Transport for London’s chairman, previously provoked dismay by saying in 2023 that some anti-Ulez protesters were “joining hands” and “in coalition” with far-Right groups. In the same year, he also claimed public opposition to the pollution charging zone was being “weaponised” by anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists, and that Nazi sympathisers were among those protesting against his policies."
Sadiq Khan blames Brexit for housing failure as he gets £300m rescue package - "Sir Sadiq has often attributed the slowing down of housebuilding to Brexit, blaming a loss of EU construction workers, supply chain disruption and the cost of building materials. However, the industry has blamed the Mayor’s own restrictions for the slump in activity, pointing to the high levels affordable housing required for making schemes unaffordable... “In 2016, 60pc of total arrivals came from the EU, and now 90pc come from outside the EU”"
Shouldn't the left love Brexit since it "diversified" migration so much?
Life in prison for dogs that bite twice - "Stray dogs that bite humans twice will be sentenced to life in prison in India. Uttar Pradesh, a state in northern India, imposed the punitive measures after the Supreme Court ordered authorities in New Delhi last month to control its stray dog problem. The court ruling, which sparked outrage across India, followed the death of a six-year-old girl from rabies, one of the thousands of bite victims who succumb to the virus every year... In cases where aggression is linked to stress or provocation, officials say dogs will be given behavioural training to help them adapt. The directive comes a month after a Supreme Court bench last month ordered all stray dogs in Delhi to be rounded up and detained in shelter homes within eight weeks."
Zack Polanski has just shown why no sane person will be voting Green - "During his ill-fated stint as Labour leader, the pacifist George Lansbury declared that he would scrap the Armed Forces. “I would close every recruiting station, disband the Army, and disarm the Air Force,” he vowed. “I would abolish the whole dreadful equipment of war, and say to the world: ‘Do your worst!’” He made this noble commitment to unilateral disarmament in 1933 – the very same year, as it happens, that a man named Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany. On the whole, then, it’s probably for the best that Lansbury never got to No10. However naive he may have been, however, he looks like the embodiment of worldly sagacity next to a certain politician at large today. On Sunday, Zack Polanski – leader of the Green Party and current idol of the millennial Left – gave an interview to Sir Trevor Phillips on Sky News. And during it he boldly announced that, when he’s prime minister, he intends to persuade Vladimir Putin to ditch all his nuclear weapons... None the less, Mr Polanski should not be underestimated. He is a man of extraordinary talents. Let’s not forget that, during his previous career as a Harley Street hypnotherapist, he once told a woman that he could make her breasts grow bigger by harnessing the powers of her unconscious mind. So perhaps, rather than trying to appeal to Putin’s better nature, his plan is to sit the Russian tyrant down, and murmur, “You are feeling sleepy, very, very sleepy...” If, at the end of their summit, President Putin emerges from the Kremlin sporting a blissful grin and a pair of enormous, shapely breasts, you’ll know that world peace has finally been agreed."
Oxford and Cambridge drop out of top three in university ranking for first time - "The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2026 ranked the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) first for the second year in a row, followed by the University of St Andrews in second and Durham University in third. The University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge were placed in joint fourth position – the first time neither have held a place in the top three in the 32 years the Times guide has been running. Last year Oxford was ranked third and Cambridge had already been pushed to fourth. Both were pushed down last year when LSE moved up to first place from fourth and St Andrews came second."
Meme - "Fictional war hammers *huge head*
Historical war hammers *small head*"
Germany's far-right AfD suffers series of candidate deaths ahead of local vote - "Initial reports centred on news that four of its candidates had died, and then the deaths of two reserve candidates also emerged, prompting a flurry of conspiracy theories on social media. AfD co-leader Alice Weidel made no effort to quash the speculation, reposting a claim by retired economist Stefan Homburg that the number of candidates' deaths was "statistically almost impossible". However, asked about the rumours in his party, the AfD's number two figure in North Rhine-Westphalia, Kay Gottschalk, acknowledged on Tuesday that "what I have in front of me - but that's just partial information - that doesn't back up these suspicions at the moment"."
Election results: AfD triples support in Germany's most populous state, CDU and SPD both lose support - "In the first major state elections since the new government, North Rhine-Westphalia went to the polls, with the Christian Democrats (CDU) coming out on top while the Social Democrats (SPD) crashed in support. Meanwhile, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) is now the third-strongest party in the state, more than tripling its support from the last elections."
Photos of Muslim woman without hijab are not ‘intimate images’: B.C. tribunal - "Photos of a Muslim woman in which she is not wearing a hijab are not intimate images, a B.C. tribunal has ruled. The Civil Resolution Tribunal published its decision on the case Friday, dismissing a claim for damages under B.C.’s Intimate Images Protection Act. The legislation allows people to seek up to $5,000 in compensation from individuals who share or threaten to share their intimate images without consent. The woman, whose identity is anonymized under a publication ban, told the tribunal photos of her without her hijab were shared with court officials, some of whom were male, by her ex-husband in the course of a family law proceeding... Additionally, the tribunal found a photo of the woman kissing her ex-husband did not depict a sexual act. “I find that kissing, although it can be intimate, is not by definition a sexual act. I say this because parents and grandparents kiss their children and grandchildren, friends may kiss to say hello, people may kiss their pets,” Ritchie wrote. “I also accept that depending on the context, kissing can be a sexual act. In the kiss photo, it could be implied that the parties recently had or were about to have sexual intercourse. However, I find that implication alone is insufficient to say that this photo depicts a ‘sexual act.’”"
If images of an uncovered woman are intimate images, then women being uncovered in public is indecent exposure
What happened to the “leave in for 2 minutes” instructions on conditioner bottles? : r/AskHistorians - "I have a Masters in History, and I’ve marketed Consumer Packaged Goods, including Hair Care for over three decades - I think I know the answer to this question! One factor is technology driven. Most conditioners in the 1960s and earlier were detanglers based on cationic emulsions that made hair more slippery, and didn’t need much contact with the hair to have their effect. They act by reducing static and smoothing hair cuticles. In the 1970s we started to see hydrolyzed proteins, oils and synthetic emollients that actually penetrate hair - but that takes a few minutes to happen. This is when the guidance to leave for a few minutes started. Other technological developments like silicones also required time to coat the hair evenly. So that’s why the guidance to wait a few minutes emerged from a technological point of view. Another consideration is the premiumisation of the category. With these new technologies came price increases, and consumers felt that they were getting a fundamentally new and better product if it had to be used differently.
So why has the guidance disappeared? There are a few reasons. One is technological. As manufacturers optimized conditioner technology, it required less time for ingredients to penetrate the hair. It’s still beneficial to leave conditioners on your hair for a while, but it’s less vital. The second is a category dynamic. As brands introduced leave in conditioners and weekly hair masks, they wanted to differentiate daily conditioners from these more intense (and more expensive) treatments. As a result they focused on the convenience of the daily conditioners - just apply and rinse - vs the efficacy of treatments that have to be left in for up to fifteen minutes and would be used less frequently. The third is cost cutting. In the 1980s and 90s most CPG packaging was monolingual. The corporate structure of most manufacturers of hair care products (L’Oreal, P&G, Unilever, Henkel etc) was multinational, but decisions on advertising and packaging were still made at the local level. Monolingual packaging meant there was lots of space for usage instructions. In the mid-90s I remember a senior leader of a hair care brand saying that the three most valuable words in the category were “repeat as necessary” on the back of shampoo bottles. In the early 2000s things started to change. Multinationals centralised decision making regionally or globally, and sought to generate cost savings through multilingual packaging. This put the space on the back label at a premium, as legal requirements like ingredients took up more and more space. Usage instructions were either squeezed out or turned into simple infographics. The managers rationalized that “everyone knows how to use the product anyway”. Which was true, for a while. We now have a generation of users who really don’t understand how to use basic hair products. They don’t know that longer hair requires more shampoo, they don’t know that washing twice will give you a far better result, they don’t know that conditioners are only supposed to be used on the middle to ends of your hair and they don’t know that many conditioners will work better if you leave them on for a couple of minutes before rinsing. Smart marketers are starting to address this issue with packaging or educational social media campaigns, but it’s a big issue in the industry."
