Impact of Quebec’s Bill 96 on trademarks still drawing concern in Canada and U.S. - "Two months before the final provisions of Quebec’s language law reform come into effect, an international business group says it’s still not clear how its trademark translation requirements will be applied. Those provisions of the law, commonly known as Bill 96, have also drawn recent concern from the United States government, which sees them as a barrier to trade. Jennifer Simmons, the associate senior director of government affairs at the U.S.-based International Trademark Association, said businesses still lack clarity around translation requirements for terms that are considered “descriptive” or “generic” in trademarks. “The whole idea is that terms that are considered descriptive or generic are supposed to be translated into French, and I think that at the high level that’s fine and that makes sense,” she said. “But when you actually get down to what does that mean, how can businesses have certainty over what is descriptive and what is generic, and therefore what must they translate, that is really not any clearer now than it was previously.” For example, if a fabric softener was branded as having a “spring breeze” scent, Simmons said, it’s not descriptive because it’s not referring to a specific scent and is instead encouraging the product’s user to imagine a certain characteristic, and it’s not generic. But after reading the regulations and guidance around the law and meeting with the Office québécois de la langue française, she said it’s not clear whether that term would have to be translated... “Those trademarks, in a lot of cases, are registered trademarks,” she said. “A trademark examiner at the trademarks office has determined that that trademark is not descriptive, because that’s one of the requirements for trademark registration, and now we have a provincial law that’s saying, ‘No, wait a second, that term is descriptive and it has to be translated.’ So that’s problematic.” That’s one of several areas of conflict between Bill 96’s trademark provisions and Canada’s trademark system, which is governed by federal law, Ellbogen said, and could lead to legal challenges “under the constitutional framework of the division of powers.”... The concern south of the border isn’t new. Emails released to The Gazette under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act show that U.S. trade officials discussed concerns about the law’s effect on trademarks and other intellectual property between late 2022 and early 2024... Asked if businesses will pull out of Quebec until they have more clarity, Simmons said that will be up to individual companies to decide. “I think that’s precisely why the United States listed this as a barrier to trade, because it creates question marks for businesses and it creates uncertainty,” she said... Simmons said she worries that could be too expensive and burdensome for businesses to benefit, leading to fears that if businesses don’t consistently use their common-law trademarks, they could lose that protection. “On paper, it looks good, but if a brand owner has to obtain a court order in order to be able to get the benefit of the exception, then it’s really kind of meaningless,” she said."
Naturally, to many people, hating the US and Trump is more important than critically examining the policy
U.S. lists Quebec's language law in annual report on 'foreign trade barriers' : r/montreal - "There’s “it’s an official language” and then there’s bill 96. That bill doesn’t even know what the rules are. I live in Montreal for a company trying to follow the law and we are constantly consulting with lawyers who are like “I don’t fucking know?!” It’s so unclear and it seems to be changing constantly. We have been working on it since last year, and it was set to be even more strict until fines or something were threatened (I think by the us trade commission, I can’t recall). They were literally making it up as they went, we are sinking an insane amount of time into trying to be compliant and pissing away money. Think translating a nail polish name. Like an OPI nail polish “teal the cows come home” or “do you lilac it” Would have needed a french translation under the initial guidelines given to us. That was one of the things they eventually backed down on, but only after months of work. And if we didn’t comply? Tens of thousands of dollars worth of fines by the day (that was what legal communicated to me). Listen I fucking HATE trump, but even if he weren’t elected bill 96 is a nightmare for companies to manage and will result in consumers in Quebec being hurt. They were talking about having all the buttons on your ovens and microwaves have French predominance. Suppliers will either pull out of Quebec completely or they will run very small batches and we will Eat the cost. I hope the bill has been more fleshed out and isn’t so insane anymore but this was all I was working on last spring at work. I don’t remember all of the details because honestly I’ve tried to block it out. We made ourselves as compliant as we could until the rules change. We have other fires to put out now, tariffs increasing operating costs….. When I was doing the bulk of the work on bill 96 compliance, Biden was in office. It’s a nightmare for anyone bringing goods into QC, and it’s not good for the consumer. You know they pitched to put stickers on ovens?? Stickers over the buttons on your 1200$ (and that price would increase) oven… so it says Griller instead of (or more predominantly) than Broil."
Montreal library cites Quebec language law in refusing English book club - "A Montreal author says he was shocked when he was told recently that he could not host a meeting for his English book club in a Montreal public library due to Quebec’s new language law. Christopher DiRaddo has been hosting book clubs since 2018 and has held meetings in all kinds of places for readers who speak English and French. With growing popularity, he was looking for a bigger space and requested a room at the Bibliothèque Père-Ambroise on Visitation Street in Montreal’s Village... Montreal-based lawyer Julius Grey, who has studied the language law extensively and is involved in challenging it in the courts, said the explanation makes no sense and that “nothing in Bill 96 requires that sort of interpretation.”"
No Habs No: Quebec orders STM to drop ‘Go’ from bus messages because it’s an English word - "Even Premier François Legault favoured the hashtag #GoHabsGo until 2021... Quebec allows some exceptions to the requirement that communication with public bodies be offered in French only. Those who may be communicated with in a language other than French include Indigenous Peoples, Quebecers eligible to receive instruction in English, and immigrants for the first six months after arriving in Quebec... The ban on the word Go mirrors Quebec’s attempts to discourage store employees from greeting customers with Bonjour-Hi, a controversial phrase that blends English and French. In 2017, Quebec’s National Assembly unanimously passed a motion, backed by all political parties, encouraging merchants to greet customers with a simple “bonjour.” Two years later, the Legault government floated the idea of formally banning Bonjour-Hi. It quickly backed down after critics said it would be impossible to legislate conversations between citizens and store workers."
New Study Reveals The Best Exercise For Beating Insomnia—And It’s Not Walking - "According to a study led by Dr Kittiphon Nagaviroj, an associate professor at Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University in Bangkok, strength-based exercises outperform aerobic and combination workouts when it comes to enhancing sleep. The research, published in the journal Family Medicine and Community Health on March 4, analyzed data from 25 clinical trials involving nearly 2,200 participants. Sleep quality naturally declines as people age, and up to 1 in 5 seniors experience insomnia. This can lead to various health problems, including an increased risk of heart disease, cognitive decline, and weakened immunity. While exercise has long been considered beneficial for sleep, researchers sought to determine which type of exercise provides the most relief... The researchers believe that resistance training helps regulate stress hormones, reduce anxiety, and promote relaxation—key factors in achieving restful sleep. Unlike aerobic exercises, which primarily enhance cardiovascular health, strength training stimulates muscle growth, boosts metabolism, and promotes deep sleep cycles."
Walking Counts as Exercise. A Personal Trainer Shares Why - "Sergii Putsov, a certified personal trainer with a PhD in sports science, says, "Walking for just 30 minutes every day can lower your risk of severe cardiovascular disease and dementia." April Crowe, a licensed clinical social worker at Paramount Wellness Retreat, adds that "walking in natural environments also boosts cognitive function and creativity, thereby providing a unique kind of therapy." Does walking do more than build your heart's strength? As it turns out, yes. The Mayo Clinic has identified additional health benefits of walking. According to the medical center, walking can improve muscle endurance, boost energy, lower blood pressure, strengthen bones and support the immune system. You can see benefits both outdoors and on a treadmill. Walking alone can also change the shape of your body. In 2017, the Journal of Physical Activity and Health did a meta-analysis of 22 clinical trials related to walking and health. The results revealed that brisk walking reduced waist circumference, fat mass and body fat percentage to a "clinically significant" degree in men and women under age 50 living with obesity. It can also lead to overall weight loss. So, that "hot girl walk" you take could cause noticeable changes to your body if you stick to it... Gregor Parella, also a CPT, says of walking for walking's sake: "It is much better than jogging because jogging can put undue pressure on your ankles, especially if you are heavily built. On the other hand, brisk walking is one of the best exercises because it tones up your leg and calf muscles" without the same pressure on joints. Even walking at a slow pace is better than being stationary at home, but a faster pace will also hasten the health benefits. A 2019 study in Atherosclerosis found that "walking pace was inversely associated with the risk of death and development of cardiovascular disease" in male physicians with an average age of 67.8. In other words, the faster you walk, the lower your risk of death and cardiovascular disease."
New train will directly link two European capitals for the first time - "Europe isn’t short of dazzling places to visit, with some of the most popular spots being Lisbon in Portugal and Madrid in Spain. But with more than 500km between the two capital cities, seeing them both during one trip can be a little tricky. Currently if you were to travel by train, the quickest journeys last around 10 hours and 30 minutes, but it can take as long as 19 hours according to Trainline. And to make matters worse, you’d need to make at least three changes along the way. Thankfully, it looks like things are going to get much easier for travellers, as Spanish rail company, Renfe, has a new direct route in the works which would link the two destinations for the very first time. What’s more, the new high-speed journey would really whittle down the travel time, slashing it from 10 hours to just three."
Amazing it's taken so long
Margarita Simonyan on X - "Nikita Casap, the teen who murdered his parents in Wisconsin in February and plotted to assassinate Trump, wasn’t acting alone. FBI records show he was in contact with Ukrainians, discussing how to carry out the attack and frame it as a Russian operation. He also asked how soon he could flee to Ukraine afterward — and whether he'd be able to have a normal life there. This should have been headline news. No mainstream media outlet has touched these public records."
Biracial Asian Americans and Mental Health - "A new study of Chinese-Caucasian, Filipino-Caucasian, Japanese-Caucasian and Vietnamese-Caucasian individuals concludes that biracial Asian Americans are twice as likely as monoracial Asian Americans to be diagnosed with a psychological disorder... Zane and his co-investigator, UC Davis psychology graduate student Lauren Berger, found that 34 percent of biracial individuals in a national survey had been diagnosed with a psychological disorder, such as anxiety, depression or substance abuse, versus 17 percent of monoracial individuals. The higher rate held up even after the researchers controlled for differences between the groups in age, gender and life stress, among other factors."
If birth defects (i.e. health problems) means that we are justified in banning incestuous sex, should we ban interracial sex too?
greg on X - "You’re in an arena with:
-50 hawks
-10 crocodiles
-3 brown bears
-15 wolves
-1 hunter w/rifle
-7 Cape buffalo
-10,000 rats
-5 gorillas
-4 lions
Pick 2 to defend you while the others attack you. Goal is to survive one hour"
LindyMan on X - "The Romans would stage interspecies battles in the colosseum. Here are the results as recorded by Martial: A Tiger always killed a lion Elephant killed a bull Rhino killed a bull Rhino killed a bear Elephant killed a rhino"
Big Serge ☦️🇺🇸🇷🇺 on X - "The Romans quickly discovered that tigers always kill lions in fights. Lions are social creatures, so the males interpret the fight as a dominance game and try to batter their opponent into submission while the tiger aims to kill the enemy outright. There’s a lesson there."
Which Countries Have the Spiciest Food in the World - "As this chart shows, in warmer countries, people eat spicier food. Conversely, the colder the climate, the fewer spicy ingredients in your cuisine. There are of course outliers and other exceptions (and we’ll get to those). But the three-pepper question is: Why do dishes in hotter climates use more spices? That’s the topic of an article published in Nature in February 2021. By examining 33,750 recipes from 70 national and regional cuisines containing a total of 93 different spices, researchers wanted to test the oft-posited hypothesis that spicy food in hot countries is an adaptation to increased risk of foodborne diseases. They were unable to prove the hypothesis, citing the difficulty to interpret correlations between culture and environment. “Variation in spice use is not explained by temperature and… spice use cannot be accounted for by diversity of cultures, plants, crops or naturally occurring spices,” the researchers wrote in the article’s abstract. “Patterns of spice use are not consistent with an infection-mitigation mechanism, but are part of a broader association between spice, health, and poverty.” The researchers suggest other explanations for why people in hot countries tend to eat spicier food. One possibility is that it’s because spices help preserve food in hot climates. Another is that people in hot countries have developed a taste for spicy food because it helps them cool down. Whatever the reason, the correlation does exist. Looking at the graph, we see that countries and regions with a higher mean annual temperature (in °C, on the x-axis) tend to use more spices (mean number of spice ingredients per recipe, on the y-axis)... One country outdoes all of them: Ethiopia, spicier by far, despite having a slightly lower average temperature than all of them... The least spicy recipes are from Japan, with those from Hokkaido barely managing one spice ingredient per recipe, which is still a higher average than the dishes from Kyushu, Shikoku, and other regions of the country... Indian food is generally very spicy (no surprises there), but there is considerable variation between the cuisines. Cooking in the Jain tradition is the least spicy, roughly on par with Greek food. Bengal and Gujarati dishes are about as spicy as Portuguese and American food. The spiciest Indian food comes from Rajasthan, Punjab, and especially the Mughlai, a region in northern India where the Mughal Empire left a strong cultural legacy, also in the kitchen. While this graph is doubtlessly well researched, it should come with two caveats. First, “spicy” and “hot,” while colloquially used as synonyms, don’t entirely overlap. There are also spices that are sweet (e.g. vanilla), savory (such as coriander), or citrusy (like ginger). And second, it overlooks the evolving palates of the modern world."
Sales of beef dripping surge as Britons embrace Maga diet - "Sales of beef dripping are soaring as Britons ditch cooking oils amid a US campaign over their alleged negative health impact. Amy Moring, the founder of food startup Hunter & Gather, said the company had benefited from a 300pc increase in sales of its beef tallow – another word for dripping – since September. It is on course to sell over 40 tonnes of the ingredient this year. It comes amid a growing backlash against seed oils such as canola, corn, soybean and sunflower. Concerns over their impact on peoples’ health have been popularised by social media influencers and politicians in the US... Other fats being touted as a healthier alternative to cooking oils on social media include ghee, a clarified butter used widely in South Asia and the Middle East. Ms Moring said people were seeking out “fats that have been used for millennia, such as coconut, avocado oil, versus these industrialised seed oils, which have come into our diets in the last 100 to 150 years”. She said: “From the eating perspective, [tallow] is a really useful fat. It’s got a 220-degree smoke point – that’s much higher than, say, olive oil – and it’s quite neutral in flavour.” She added: “I think it harks back to people remembering their grandparents talking about beef dripping, or the good old days. We’ve just lost our way so much in so many areas, so we are going to social media for that ancestral wisdom.” She added that some customers were using tallow to make skincare products rather than eating it, amid claims that it can relieve dryness and irritation. “A lot of the TikTok stuff is around making your own balms,” she said."
Thread by @SpencrGreenberg on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "Does astrology work? We tested the ability of 152 astrologers to see if they could demonstrate genuine astrological skill. Here is how the study was designed and what we found (including a result that really surprised me): 🧵 ...
One of the most fundamental claims of astrology is that a person's natal chart contains information about that person's life and character. If true, astrologers should be able to correctly choose a person's chart at a rate well above random guessing. Each astrologer tries to match people to their correct chart 12 times. If they're guessing completely at random (e.g., they have no skill because astrology doesn't actually work), then they'll get about 20% of questions right, or about 2.4 questions right (on average) out of 12. Neat aspects of this study design are that (1) if astrology doesn't work, it's impossible for astrologers to do better than random guessing at this task, while (2) for the study to come out in support of astrology, astrologers only need to do slightly better than random guessing But this is only a fair test if astrologers believe they can do this task - so we limit our analyses only to participants with prior astrological experience who predicted they would do better than random guessing at the task. Our results are based on 152 such astrologers... If they'd gotten even 23% of questions right (slightly above the 20% of random guessing), the study would have come out in favor of astrology. But astrologers as a group performed indistinguishable from random guessing, getting < 21% right. We can compare how frequently astrologers got different numbers of questions correct to how often we'd expect them to get different numbers correct if they were all guessing totally at random with no skill. The two distributions match very closely. But perhaps the less experienced astrologers were just dragging down the performance of the group? We looked at how performance varied based on astrological experience. More experienced astrologers did not do better than less experienced ones despite being far more confident. Even if most astrologers have no skill, there's another way astrology could prove itself. If even 1 of the 152 astrologers performed exceptionally well, that could provide meaningful evidence for astrology. We offered a $1000 prize for anyone getting at least 11 out of 12. Unfortunately, despite more than half of the astrologers believing that they had gotten 6 or more questions right (after completing the task), in actual fact, not a single astrologer got more than 5 right...
Much to my surprise, astrologers had very low agreement with each other on the chart for each person. If astrologers picked charts at random, they would agree with each other 20% of the time. In our study, even the most experienced astrologers only agreed 28% of the time."
After a decade, Jinjja Chicken founder admits brand is Singaporean not Korean — says it’s time to ‘support locals who dare’ : r/singapore - "it boils down to marketing. 10 years ago it was good for marketing to be a “Korean” brand. 10 years later Korean Chicken joints are a dime a dozen. how to differentiate? “support local”"
I Faked Liking Sparkling Water for 3 Years and Now I’m Trapped : r/confession - "I’m 30 now, but this started when I was around 27, during a phase where I was trying really hard to be one of those “put-together adults” who meal prep, drink sparkling water, and have plants that aren’t just dying slowly in the corner. So I bought a 12-pack of LaCroix because, you know, that’s what the cool, healthy people were drinking. First sip? It tasted like someone whispered the word “fruit” into a cup of TV static. Absolutely disgusting. But I had already posted it on my Instagram story with the caption: “New addiction lol.” And that was the beginning of my downfall. Friends started bringing LaCroix over when they visited. Coworkers stocked it in the office fridge “because I liked it.” My girlfriend (now fiancée) thought it was cute how “into sparkling water” I was, so she bought me a SodaStream for Christmas. Now I’m in too deep. I’ve become the guy who nods thoughtfully while drinking what is essentially spicy sadness. I have flavors in my fridge with names like “Pamplemousse” and “Limoncello,” and I pretend like I can tell the difference. I can’t. It all tastes like carbonated regret. Sometimes I just want a normal drink. But if I ever open a Gatorade, someone will say, “Whoa, no LaCroix today?” and I’ll just fake laugh like, “Haha, gotta switch it up!” Meanwhile my soul is quietly screaming. Anyway, if you’re young and reading this: never lie about your beverages. That stuff will haunt you. Thanks for coming to my Ted talk."
"My stepfather is a respectable guy who has one beer and wants to tell grossout stories. I made the mistake of telling him the foulest "joke" I had ever heard and it's been almost 15yrs now and I am forced to repeat it everytime I go see them for a visit. "So I was going down on this chick and I tasted horse semen, I looked up and said "Oh grandma, that's what killed you."" You're welcome."
Can someone who’s good at life explain to me why fixing the paths at Bellwoods requires a 12‑month, multi‑stage study? : r/toronto - "The City can’t do anything without having 10 public meetings about it first. Once the work is finished, some folks will still complain there wasn’t enough consultation."
"Because no amount of consultation is enough for people who don't like the end result."
‘Gravitational pull’ of bathroom ‘black hole’ that drew middle school boy was curiosity, not crime, court says - "The Oregon Court of Appeals found that a middle school student’s curiosity doesn’t amount to criminal mischief in a case that involved a toilet and an enticing hole in the boys bathroom ceiling. The Appeals Court this week threw out the judgment against the student, finding no evidence to suggest he had intended to cause a “substantial inconvenience” at Azalea Middle School in Brookings... The Curry County judge in this case was the same one reversed by the Appeals Court in 2021. In the earlier decision, the appellate court threw out the 2018 prosecution of a disabled woman who was convicted in Margolis’ court of trying to elude police on her motorized scooter after she was stopped earlier in the night for using the scooter in a crosswalk, unsafe operation of the scooter and failure to wear a helmet."
What your favourite destinations looked like before tourism - "The cultural revolution of the 1960s saw the [Great] wall [of China] denounced as a symbol of the feudal past and there was a campaign to neglect or even destroy it. Stones and bricks were taken away to be used in modern housing."
Michigan Community Leader Shot Dies After Police Chase - "Deshawn Dante Leeth, 30, crashed the stolen vehicle during a pursuit by Pennsylvania State Troopers as he turned onto the Ohio Turnpike. According to a police report obtained by Mlive, the chase began after Leeth assaulted an Ohio State Trooper, stealing his car to flee the scene. The trooper had originally responded to a single-vehicle rollover crash on the turnpike. PennLive reported that the driver, identified as Leeth, began to assault the trooper before stealing the patrol vehicle to flee east toward Pennsylvania... Leeth was known in his Ypsilanti neighborhood for his advocacy work. He founded the Underdawg Nation, a nonprofit dedicated to serving children impacted by community violence in Washtenaw County and beyond. According to its website, he founded the organization following his own release from prison to spark positive change in the community he once hurt with his own actions. Leeth became part of the board of directors for another organization, the We The People Opportunity Farm. The nonprofit gave him his first chance to give back to the neighborhood as an intern in 2021."
Tourists warned over £2,000 fine if they wear flip-flops at popular European holiday destination - "Cinque Terre is known for its colourful cliffhanging villages and stunning coastline and a popular way to explore the region is to walk between the villages on hiking trails. But tourists will need to comply with several regulations if they want to avoid picking up a hefty fine. In 2019, authorities introduced a ban on wearing open or smooth-soled footwear, such as flip-flops and sliders, on the hiking trails. And breaking the rules could leave you facing a fine of up to €2,500/£2,000... Tourists visiting idyllic Turredda Beach in Sardinia will need to use an app to book a slot this year. The gorgeous crescent-shaped beach plans to use the app from July to restrict numbers to 1,100 people per day."
KLEIN: Bureaucracy is breaking Canada — and the numbers prove it - "According to the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, the federal public service grew from 257,034 employees in 2015 to 367,772 by 2024. That’s an increase of more than 110,000 bureaucrats — a 42% surge. Over the same period, Canada’s population grew by just over 15%. In plain terms, the federal bureaucracy expanded nearly three times faster than the population it is supposed to serve. Costs followed the same trajectory. A 2023 Parliamentary Budget Officer report shows that federal operational spending — which includes salaries, benefits, and department overhead — jumped from $87.5 billion in 2019–20 to $115.9 billion in 2021–22. That’s a 32% increase in just two years. If you project that trend through 2024, the increase approaches 73%, based on estimates from the Fraser Institute and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation... fewer than half of all federal departments consistently meet their performance targets. So Canadians are paying for more bureaucrats — and getting less in return. Federal government workers are also more expensive. They earn an average of 8.5% more than private-sector employees in similar roles, according to the Fraser Institute. This gap does not include their pension and benefit packages. Since 2015, $1.5 billion in bonuses have been handed out — even in years when performance targets weren’t met. This is less about delivering services and more about padding public payrolls. Some growth has been blamed on COVID-19 hiring, which accounted for approximately 35,000 new employees. However, the bulk of the expansion occurred both before and after the pandemic. This is not temporary — it is a structural and deliberate expansion of government... In Manitoba, the largest employer is not a private-sector company — it’s the provincial government. More than 14,000 people are directly employed by the province, with thousands more working in Crown corporations and public agencies like Manitoba Hydro and MPI... A Liberal government will not stop unless voters force change at the ballot box. It is easier for them to distract with emotional issues or divisive debates than to admit the hard truth. Canada has created a bloated, unsustainable public system — and we can no longer afford it. This election must focus on facts, not slogans. Sooner or later, taxpayers run out of money. When that day comes, we won’t be debating how to grow. We’ll be struggling to manage the collapse."
