|
crowoutofcontext posted:I also used to hear a lot about vast, arctic shipping trade routes opening up and international trading hubs being built when the "poles melt." Which don't really hold up to a few minutes of scrutiny. Any of these supposed benefits would be counteracted by the fact that they built their buildings on what was supposed to be permafrost up there, no?
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2015 15:35
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 15, 2024 03:34 |
|
|
So apparently alot of Canadians are happy with the job JT is doing
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2015 16:07
|
|
|
Northwest passage for shipping is real and will happen. You couldn't take a rotting fiberglass Albin Vega through it 25 years ago and expect to live, like Rutherford did a few years ago, and the US is greatly expanding terminal capacity at their Arctic oil sites in anticipation.
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2015 16:17
|
|
|
Remember: the alot is better than you at everything  http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.ca/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html 
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2015 16:31
|
|
|
I see you guys recognized that soil quality has a big impact on agriculture and we can't just build farming bunkers to replace industrial agriculture. Whether we like it or not our food supply depends heavily on huge swathes of corn, soy, and wheat production that we can't replicate below ground or in poor soil. Anyway: Helsing posted:I'll repost that article later and we can hash out your problems with it. Might be a better basis for the discussion than my ramblings. I got this! quote:Untangling the #hashtagfail-lings of the NDP campaign Dreylad posted:I don't know, for some reason the article never seems to quite put its finger on what the Left is and what the NDP Left should be. We all have our own views about what leftist politics and policies should be, and those can range from the more libertarian to the more statist, along with the complexities of identity politics. But the article emphasizes a failure to communicate what the NDP ought to stand for when you've pointed out that the party leadership very consciously set out its platform well in advance. Is the NDP a leftist party with poor communication skills, or is it masquerading as one and needs to be changed within. The answer could be both, but I don't feel the article really reaches that conclusion. Dreylad fucked around with this message at 17:15 on Nov 29, 2015 |
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2015 17:11
|
|
|
No one's talked about the possibility of lab-synthesized meat. If I'm going to pick a futuristic thing in the field of food production to look toward, it'll be that one. If we didn't have to grow feed for livestock and we could still have all the delicious, wonderful meat that almost everyone loves, we'd need a lot less arable land, before we even discuss the amount of land that's taken up as pasture. Being able to grow a steak in a lab would make "urban farming" look like quaint nonsense by comparison.
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2015 17:36
|
|
|
The sentence "The Left is already dangerously disconnected from average people" makes me irrationally angry. It's just so stupid!
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2015 17:58
|
|
|
MonsieurChoc posted:The sentence "The Left is already dangerously disconnected from average people" makes me irrationally angry. It's just so stupid! Why? The average person is demonstrably a complete halfwit; surely you'd want your leadership to be disconnected from them?
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2015 18:00
|
|
|
For a lot of us item #1 on the job description was: "Not Stephen Harper", and yes, he's doing a drat fine job of that. Get back to me in 3.5 years on whether I might consider voting Liberal (again - God it's been a long time). It's not that mistakes will be made, those are inevitable. It's how this government will deal with them when they come to light. And we haven't yet seen how the Bay Street boy running Finance is going to balance off the interests of Canadians versus the interests of his colleagues.
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2015 18:16
|
|
|
Wow, it really sounds like you're going into this with a totally open mind!
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2015 18:38
|
|
|
PT6A posted:Why? The average person is demonstrably a complete halfwit; surely you'd want your leadership to be disconnected from them? Yeah, that's true, but that's not what makes me angry. It assumes a default state for political leanings when the truth is that people have opinions all over the map. The average people the article refers don't really exist.
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2015 18:44
|
|
|
MonsieurChoc posted:Yeah, that's true, but that's not what makes me angry. It assumes a default state for political leanings when the truth is that people have opinions all over the map. The average people the article refers don't really exist. Not really. The average person tends towards being a skittish xenophobe ruled by gut feelings above reason, so, while outliers exist, I think it's pretty honest to say that the Average Canadian Dolt holds more views in common with the CPC than not, in a lot of respects. In other news, apparently another mosque was vandalized, this time in Cold Lake  This. loving. Province.
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2015 18:48
|
|
|
Stretch Marx posted:Part of my project is to create a more contained hydroponics rig that would maximize the amount of plants versus available space. I think my test bed rig design should be able to handle about 10 to 12 plants in a space that's 4 feet wide, 2 feet deep, and roughly 5 or so feet tall using LED lights. Just make sure the system is customizable/modular enough to grow a pot plant beside your lettuce and tomatoes and it'll sell like hotcakes. PT6A posted:In other news, apparently another mosque was vandalized, this time in Cold Lake Buttfuck nowhere O&G and military town... Surprised they even have any Muslims up there. I suspect the anti-muslim backlash is probably going to trail off in Canada without the CPC actively encouraging it. Get back to our Canadian roots of only being vocally racist towards natives and keep the other racism in hushed tones around the dinner table.
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2015 20:50
|
|
|
In other lighter news, JT got dad's desk out of storage for his office to replace Harper's. *Insert image of the ghost of Trudeau laughing over sad Harper here.* Pretty boss desk. Made in 1880 and used by Wilfrid Laurier, Lester B. Pearson, Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin. 
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2015 20:55
|
|
|
The Butcher posted:Just make sure the system is customizable/modular enough to grow a pot plant beside your lettuce and tomatoes and it'll sell like hotcakes. Making it currently out of PVC piping to make the modular part easier until I can work out the kinks. Also doing Twilight chilies as current exotic crop to see if they can take the system.
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2015 21:01
|
|
|
The Butcher posted:
I suspect the CPC hold on power conveniently paralled the rise of the Internet (and mutation of broadcast news) as a never-ending firehose of bigotry and bigot-reinforcement, and we will see no measurable changes to citizen psychology. Our governments stance matters less than what Joe Dick in Assdick, Alberta watches on his syndicated American CNN broadcast, or reads on stormfront tonight, while slamming brewskies. The decline of discourse thanks to perceived digital anonymity is likely permanent, at least for current generations.
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2015 21:19
|
|
|
The Butcher posted:In other lighter news, JT got dad's desk out of storage for his office to replace Harper's. lmao, that owns also that's a really nice desk
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2015 21:21
|
|
|
Rime posted:I suspect the CPC hold on power conveniently paralled the rise of the Internet (and mutation of broadcast news) as a never-ending firehose of bigotry and bigot-reinforcement, and we will see no measurable changes to citizen psychology. Our governments stance matters less than what Joe Dick in Assdick, Alberta watches on his syndicated American CNN broadcast, or reads on stormfront tonight, while slamming brewskies. I disagree. People act like the internet suddenly sent out the bigot pulse that fried a lot of people's ethics. These people already existed in large numbers, they just didn't have the ability to communicate as easily or organize. The internet just made it easier for these idiots to find each other. But that also gives the benefit that: A: People outting themselves as bigots has become increasingly easy and shaming them even easier. B: Keeps them confined to their own little slivers of bigotworld that we can erect e-fences around and institute safari rules.
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2015 22:22
|
|
|
I disagree. Previously, bigots were relatively isolated as you say. By giving bigots anonymous outlets everywhere, they've readily discovered that there are in fact many others who share their bigoted attitudes. By allowing them this common ground, we now see things like the understanding that the comments on news articles are universally bad and not worth reading. The Internet didn't spring this up out of nowhere, it's been a slow burn over the past decade that has been seeping more and more into public life. Because bad habits, like expressing bigoted as gently caress attitudes, don't stay exclusively online in the long term unless you are a sociopath. For most people, once they've subconsciously accepted the expression of such beliefs as acceptable, will lose the ability to filter it offline as well. I cannot expand at any greater length right now, as my break is up here.
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2015 23:22
|
|
|
I'm pretty sure most bigots already figured out there were a lot of bigots all around them, too, well before the internet came around. You just didn't notice them as much because you were never in a position to observe them as often.
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2015 23:28
|
|
|
Stretch Marx posted:Previously, bigots were relatively isolated as you say. They'd speak exactly as they do know, if not more virulently down at Legion or hardware store. Maybe you guys are too young to remember but open racism, sexism and homophobia were 'normal'.
|
|
#
?
Nov 30, 2015 00:32
|
|
|
jfood posted:They'd speak exactly as they do know, if not more virulently down at Legion or hardware store. This. My family got together a couple of months ago, and as soon as they all were inside it was nothing but bashing other races, religions, and spouting out poo poo about how much better the white race is than all the others by all the older generation. Wouldn't have believed it if I wasn't there myself.
|
|
#
?
Nov 30, 2015 00:52
|
|
|
My family was all hilarious racist jokes at Christmas and other family gatherings until my generation started shaming our parents.
|
|
#
?
Nov 30, 2015 01:08
|
|
|
I think it's true that there was a brief period in the late 90s/early 00s before internet use became common (at least among older, more bigoted generations) but after the accepted discourse shifted away from overt racism, sexism, homophobia, etc., the "PC movement" if you will. During this time, bigots who spoke too loudly would get shushed and shouted down by those around them, and then they found the internet and were able to be as bigoted as they want again and the moment passed. Those of us who are relatively young probably remember this period as how things were before the internet without realizing that before that brief "PC period" all that bigotry was normalized in society. That being said, though, that doesn't mean we should just accept the internet's enabling factor as the way things are simply because bigotry existed before. We should continue to strive to make things better.
|
|
#
?
Nov 30, 2015 01:41
|
|
|
^ Quite accurate.
|
|
#
?
Nov 30, 2015 01:47
|
|
|
The Cold Lake mosque was vandalized once before, I think after Charlie Hebdo, and the community came together to clean it up, so I expect the same thing will happen again this time. Both this, and the one in Peterborough, are lovely things to have happened, but I'm surprised and gladdened that these are the only two that we've heard of so far. I would have expected a few more acts of vandalism, to be honest, after Paris and the last election we had where anti-Muslim rhetoric was a loving debate plank.
|
|
#
?
Nov 30, 2015 08:17
|
|
|
Leofish posted:The Cold Lake mosque was vandalized once before, I think after Charlie Hebdo, and the community came together to clean it up, so I expect the same thing will happen again this time. It was after the Parliament Hill shooting last year. I hope these do remain isolated incidents going forward. I'm very uncomfortable with the way Trump has been talking. For me, I think one of the bigger effects the internet and general media expansion has had is that Canada is much more saturated with bigotry from other parts of the world than it used to be. Hearing a presidential candidate talk about registering all Muslims and making them wear ID cards, and knowing that there are probably hundreds of thousands of Canadians nodding along with him on Fox, has me somewhat worried about the discourse around things like multiculturalism going forward.
|
|
#
?
Nov 30, 2015 08:39
|
|
|
Sedge and Bee posted:It was after the Parliament Hill shooting last year. I hope these do remain isolated incidents going forward. I'm very uncomfortable with the way Trump has been talking. For me, I think one of the bigger effects the internet and general media expansion has had is that Canada is much more saturated with bigotry from other parts of the world than it used to be. Hearing a presidential candidate talk about registering all Muslims and making them wear ID cards, and knowing that there are probably hundreds of thousands of Canadians nodding along with him on Fox, has me somewhat worried about the discourse around things like multiculturalism going forward. The people in Canada who would be nodding along with Trump already believe multiculturalism has failed. The discourse is already there among the more right-leaning elements of our political scene. I think you have a point that we're inundated with far more global media influence, especially of the American variety, thanks to the Internet. The web has also contributed to the fracturing of the media landscape. There was a lot more homogeneity among media consumers when there was less media to consume. Nowadays, you can find any "source" willing to give you the news with the spin you want it to have. There are thousands of people who have sworn off traditional media outlets, like the national newspapers or TV networks, in favour of their particular cocktail of independent websites and blogs. This is not always entirely bad. Citizen journalism has its place, but I think the erosion of trust that the public has in traditional media also plays a role in what you describe.
|
|
#
?
Nov 30, 2015 09:39
|
|
|
LMAO. "Grow food further north." Plants need specific levels of UV to grow, HTH.
peter banana fucked around with this message at 14:07 on Nov 30, 2015 |
|
#
?
Nov 30, 2015 14:02
|
|
|
peter banana posted:LMAO. "Grow food further north." Plants need specific levels of UV to grow, HTH. obviously we just burn some holes in the ozone
|
|
#
?
Nov 30, 2015 15:55
|
|
|
jsoh posted:obviously we just burn some holes in the ozone Good thing we know how to do that real quick! Too bad about the skin cancer though. Re: Bigot chat, I think that shaming is exceedingly poor tactic for effectively reducing lovely views, because it now far too easy to retreat to regions of the internet free of that shaming and continue to hold whatever bad position you have. This is worsened by this idea that "the other side can't be reasoned with and thus it is not worthwhile to engage with them beyond telling them they are awful and using whatever systems you have at hand to suppress this awfulness", because it perpetuates a lazy ideology where you are no longer necessary to consider why your position is righteous enough to do this, as you are never in a position where someone both disagrees with you and you are obliged to respond to their arguments. At best you might write some lovely bullet point article about how mansplaining/sjws is/are bad which can then be linked en-masse as support for whichever position someone holds. Twitter is the worst for this and invites this sort of behaviour by inherently limiting the ability to articulate arguments well. There are absolutely people who will hold a bad position regardless of argumentation, but that should not mean the best way to address this is to try to ensure they cannot say their ideas, because that at best is unrealistic, and at worse works against you.
|
|
#
?
Nov 30, 2015 17:19
|
|
|
So side note: Ministers McCallum, Philpott and Sajjan visited a refugee camp in Jordan where the first refugee Centre will be set up. So that's good right?
|
|
#
?
Nov 30, 2015 17:29
|
|
|
I just had to deal with the CRA for some small questions about my tax return, and I don't understand why they get such a bad rap. They were exceedingly helpful and pleasant -- far more than the average "businessperson" I have to deal with -- and my issue was resolved quickly with minimal waiting on hold. Maybe the government actually should run more things...
|
|
#
?
Nov 30, 2015 17:30
|
|
|
bunnyofdoom posted:So side note: Ministers McCallum, Philpott and Sajjan visited a refugee camp in Jordan where the first refugee Centre will be set up. So that's good right? That happened yesterday, correct? I saw a notice on twitter, but everyone seemed to be ignoring it for the most part (racist Twitter trolls and media alike). I'm impressed that helping refugees seems to be an actual priority for this government, like it's a thing they want to accomplish rather than something they simply have to get over with.
|
|
#
?
Nov 30, 2015 17:32
|
|
|
PT6A posted:Wow, it really sounds like you're going into this with a totally open mind! What, admitting that I voted Liberal back in the dim, dark past, or that I might actually consider voting for them again if they can establish a record other than "Putting Things Back the Way They Were"? (Despite the time and money I've thrown at the NDP over the last couple of years.) Or is it that I fundamentally distrust the 1%, after years of watching the interlocking directorships of the CD Howe & Fraser Institutes, CFIB, and CTF banging the neoliberal mythology austerity drums very effectively? According to one story junkers are more likely to stop at occupied crosswalks than luxury cars. We'll see if our new Finance minister brakes for commoners or not. Don't get me wrong - I'm thoroughly enjoying this government's performance so far. My elderly aunt was a Conservative party worker and the  about "I know they wanted change but this is too much!" is delicious. I am a bad person.
|
|
#
?
Nov 30, 2015 17:42
|
|
|
PT6A posted:I just had to deal with the CRA for some small questions about my tax return, and I don't understand why they get such a bad rap. They were exceedingly helpful and pleasant -- far more than the average "businessperson" I have to deal with -- and my issue was resolved quickly with minimal waiting on hold. I have to call them about once a week for my job, and the only real problems I have with them is that their business inquiries phone number is busy half the time. I remember reading it was from cutbacks, but other than that, it's usually smooth sailing.
|
|
#
?
Nov 30, 2015 17:45
|
|
|
Aces High posted:but isn't Alberta known for having lovely OHS in general? I seem to recall an assembly in high school talking about worker's rights and somewhere in there I think I remember hearing that our safety standards are pretty poo poo in comparison to the rest of Canada. 4H is pretty much an after-school learning how to raise livestock club. I have no idea how workplace rules would affect 4H, my cousin who now runs the family farm was in 4H all throughout high school(in Manitoba). I think people are just fearmongering this like they do with everything. PT6A posted:I just had to deal with the CRA for some small questions about my tax return, and I don't understand why they get such a bad rap. They were exceedingly helpful and pleasant -- far more than the average "businessperson" I have to deal with -- and my issue was resolved quickly with minimal waiting on hold. When I turned 18 and started filing my own tax returns I was audited for 5 straight years and that was annoying, that's about all the bad I have on the CRA. Bonus Manitoba Politics: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/Manitoba-sees-one-of-the-lowest-productivity-gains-in-the-country-in-2014-358856901.html Manitoba NDP: Steady Growth, Good Jobs 
|
|
#
?
Nov 30, 2015 18:03
|
|
|
PT6A posted:I just had to deal with the CRA for some small questions about my tax return, and I don't understand why they get such a bad rap. They were exceedingly helpful and pleasant -- far more than the average "businessperson" I have to deal with -- and my issue was resolved quickly with minimal waiting on hold. On the other hand, people in my industry have to deal with Natural Resources Canada for our certifications. They regularly lose paperwork and have turnarounds that approach double what they say the maximum response time should be for various things. This occasionally leads to things like scheduling an exam at a special testing centre (read: local library) for a specific date well in advance of the deadline only to not hear back until after the date has passed by. Then you get to try to schedule for a new date and hope they get back to you in time. Naturally, this leads to less than happy library staff (who generally have to be scheduled for after-hours for this sort of thing) and exam takers. To be fair to NRCan though, apparently most of these issues got a lot worse back when they moved their main operations from Ottawa to Hamilton. They supposedly lost a lot of their staff during the move, along with some budget cuts in recent years making them lose even more. This is all stuff I've heard word of mouth from people that are either in my industry or instructors who regularly deal with them as part of getting people certified as I haven't been involved that long. I do know that it is absolutely miserable trying to get any information from them about what is happening though. It makes me sad that one of the biggest problems with the government is that we occasionally have people in charge of it that cut funding to government programs so they can later say "look at how bad these programs are!" without any irony at all. Xyretire fucked around with this message at 18:40 on Nov 30, 2015 |
|
#
?
Nov 30, 2015 18:38
|
|
|
Most government agencies are staffed by people who want to put in an honest effort. In the case of the CRA, and the US version the IRS, unless you're actively trying to avoid paying your taxes its surprising just how downright fair they can be.
|
|
#
?
Nov 30, 2015 18:51
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 15, 2024 03:34 |
|
|
PT6A posted:I just had to deal with the CRA for some small questions about my tax return, and I don't understand why they get such a bad rap. They were exceedingly helpful and pleasant -- far more than the average "businessperson" I have to deal with -- and my issue was resolved quickly with minimal waiting on hold. In my opinion they mostly get a bad rap from American anti-IRS sentiment moving across the border thanks to American dominance of our culture. We consume so much media telling us that the IRS is awful that we assume the Canadian version must be just as bad as the fictionalized version of the IRS that American media has created (it should be noted that the IRS is also much better than its reputation, though its situation re: budget cuts is far, far worse than the CRA's and budget cuts are responsible for a large part of bad service you get at these places).
|
|
#
?
Nov 30, 2015 19:15
|
|