StillPaisleyCat

joined 2 years ago

I am fully expecting it to be at least 1/3 ponies.

Yes, I have done this in previous years.

Surprised by some of the comments here.

Whether or not the solution being proposed is the best or only one is the question.

Instead several users are taking any discussion as being anti-democratic.

The Chief Electoral Officer of Canada raised concerns about how these long ballots were impeding the democratic process, including by presenting barriers to accessibility by voters.

This has become an increasing problem, with former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s riding being targeted in 2019.

There seem to be two kinds of barriers:

  • physical barriers to finding and marking the ballot of their choice
  • becoming informed of the positions and intents of candidates when there are so many candidates that do not actually intend to serve as MPs.

The underlying issue seems to be that a small group of qualified voters in a targeted riding are nominating a very large number of candidates.

That is 60+ candidates put forward by the longest ballot group were all nominated by the same small number of voters.

Is this reasonable?

Democratic rights are balanced with responsibility under the Charter. Is it reasonable for a single voter to sign the nomination papers for 50 candidates or even 20.

Only being able to sign the papers for one candidate in one election period may be too limiting as not all candidates obtain enough signatures to be minor drop out later for other reasons.

Would limiting the right to sign nomination papers to 2 or 5 candidates be a reasonable balance under the Charter?

While this specific solution being proposed by this CPC member may be too restrictive, it seems worth a debate.

And perhaps the second issue of voters being able to reasonably obtain information about the intent and positions of candidates would be resolved if there were not so many nominated candidates.

The Rhinoceros party position that their candidates would resign if elected was well known so voters could make an informed choice. The current long ballot situation doesn’t offer that choice.

A proactive referral to the Supreme Court of Canada might be the best way to get an understanding of the balance of democratic rights. It would be best to have a read on what would be a reasonable limitation on both those who sign nominations and those who put themselves forward vs the responsibility to have accessible ballots with candidates who intend to serve before any changes to the the elections act is brought forward.

Check out altgrocery.ca for a list and map of farmers markets across Canada.

The reason WHO frames common risk factors and common chronic diseases is because persons with these risks, conditions and diseases often end up with more than one of these diseases.

e.g., WHO now considers obesity a disease in itself, but obesity is also a biological risk factor for cancer and diabetes.

There are a lot of interrelationships in the risks.

More, with these conditions, they are also more vulnerable to infectious diseases.

It’s important though to keep in mind that, as I note in another reply, these kinds of studies aren’t just about informing individuals’ choices.

They’re not about ‘blaming’ or ‘shaming’ individuals choices.

They are about understanding what are the underlying determinants of health and risk factors that are shaping health outcomes.

Back to the study in question, and the OP’s remark that they were surprised that people were eating that much processed meat daily…

If the protein sources that are most available and affordable are the most unhealthy, preprocessed ones, then consumers will buy and consume more of these than healthier ones.

And their preferences and consumption habits will be shaped by these experiences.

And that will affect overall health and life expectancy of the population.

I would argue that this is missing the point - and so, in fact, is the article reporting on the study.

What is important to keep in mind is that the benefit of this research is not primarily about ‘telling’ or ‘informing’ individuals so that they can make different food consumption decisions.

It’s more about how food environments are shaped to encourage healthy or unhealthy choices.

If eating that much processed meat daily or weekly increases cancer risks, what’s driving or nudging people towards that.

Is it barriers to availability, accessibility or affordability of healthier and palatable choices?

My point is that raising risks of getting hit by a car, or other accidental causes of injury and death beyond the individual’s control, is a deflection.

Cancer is the leading cause of death in Canada.

Full stop.

No one single risk factor is responsible for that. Building the evidence base to be able to both inform individual behaviour but also to inform food safety regulations is important.

[–] StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website 5 points 1 week ago (6 children)

Cancer is the leading cause of premature mortality and morbidity (death and disability) in Canada.

So, an accumulation of small risks, and avoidance of risks, have significant benefits at both the individual and population levels.

The general population needs to be aware that unhealthy eating is impacting their lives and quality of life.

Let’s stick to the peer reviewed science and evidence consensus.

WHO established the four behavioural common risk factors for the four major chronic noncommunicable diseases decades ago.

The kind of research synthesis in this article is about continuing to build the evidence on relative and absolute risks, and in some cases look at how these differences impact different populations more or less due to intersecting determinants.

Common risk factors

  • unhealthy diet
  • physical inactivity
  • tobacco use
  • harmful use of alcohol
  • air pollution added more recently

Major chronic noncommunicable diseases

  • cancer
  • cardiovascular diseases
  • diabetes
  • chronic respiratory diseases
[–] StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Ooh.

While I have enjoyed working on the OG 1701 and the Delta in previous years, a change up will be a great.

Looking forward to doing other ships in future years!

Biovert is excellent.

[–] StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website 13 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I feel as though the entire point of this was to make Canadians feel ashamed and discouraged on the day before our national holiday.

And in that Trump was successful. It’s brutal and bullying propaganda.

No success of realpolitik in negotiations can undo that.

The business community and media were calling the digital services tax an unforced error.

But the real unforced error is Carney getting played to do something destructive to national unity heading into Canada Day.

This is one of the few cases where his lack of political experience is showing. I’m wondering if his team will let him understand that and see the polling impact.

Cancelled by Disney but picked up by AMC for the US and Canada.

It’s been a long wait to see it in North America, but at least it will be available.

[–] StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I have sent you a DM.

Good luck. Great grandparents born in Canada can be enough. That would make your grandparents ok your mother’s side citizens. (There have been some retroactive corrections of women’s loss of citizenship in marriage.)

 

We picked up some good deals from the promotion this week.

 

Several Star Trek licensed games are on Steam, now at a significantly discounted price for the annual Star Trek Day celebration.

These include the MMP Star Trek Online, but also single player games Star Trek Bridge Crew and Star Trek Resurgence (a choose your own path role play game).

We’d waited until Resurgence came to Steam, because we did want to buy it from Epic, but decided to be even more patient and wait for a sale so we could get it for our teens as well. I’ve been playing in parallel with one of our teens and debating the impacts of our very different choices.

I have had Bridge Crew since 2022, but we got copies for the teens yesterday. One is into it. It requires running an Ubisoft account synched to Steam which can be annoying, but otherwise G2G.

 

More departures of former Viacom senior executives from Paramount Global in the wake of Baklish’s firing.

 

Interesting extract from a longer /Film interview with in-demand director Roxann Dawson.

I appreciate how she speaks with respect for the shows of the new era.

 

cross-posted from: https://startrek.website/post/1026553

Here’s something to fill some gaps in your viewing schedule. While not science fiction, this show could appeal to SNW fans and deserves a bigger audience.

SurrealEstate is a Canadian live-action supernatural drama with a light leavening of horror, produced for CTV Sci-Fi Channel, and picked up Syfy. The first season also ran on Hulu in the US after its linear run. It was canceled by Syfy US, then uncanceled when it got picked up by the Syfy channels in Europe.

It’s quirky, full of gentle ironic humour, in the way Canadian shows can be. Tim Rozon of Wynonna Earp stars along with Sarah Levy of Schitt’s Creek. Melanie Srofano (Captain Betel in SNW) directed two episodes in the first season and was reportedly back to do more.

Similar to SNW, SurrealEstate mainly episodic with light serialization coming from character arcs. It has a generally positive vibe, with a team of intriguing and diverse characters solving mysteries and clearing houses of supernatural detractions so that they can ‘achieve their true market value.’

From the season one promotional listing:

Real estate agent Luke Roman is the owner of The Roman Agency, a boutique residential real estate brokerage specializing in "metaphysically engaged" properties, also known as haunted houses. Luke has a special connection to the spiritual realm; he can not only sense the presence that might inhabit a client's house, he can often communicate and negotiate with it. Along with his team, Luke takes on the houses nobody else can or will.

If you haven’t seen season one, I firmly recommend catching it on demand on CTV (which is offering it currently offering it free to non-subscribers), on the Syfy app or on Hulu.

 

cross-posted from: https://startrek.website/post/504533

The markers of the strikes’ impacts are beginning to appear.

CTV Sci-Fi Channel/Syfy’s SurrealEstate may not have been on your radar, but it’s one of the first cable announcements pushing back a premiere date (from ‘summer’ to late October). It’s a quirky and fun show that deserves the profile of a peak fall run.

We’ve also seen announcements of Canadian network shows (e.g., Kids Ruin Everything) being picked up by CW and other US linear platforms as they try to fill their schedules. Much the same happened when COVID stopped production, and shows from Canada and elsewhere were given a chance to break into American markets.

 

Ok Raptors fam here…are we having trouble keeping a conversation going because it’s midsummer or because we’re not getting reason to hope for an interesting season ahead?

Personally, I’m seriously wondering if there’s any point to keeping our SN and TSN subscriptions.

Will I really be willing to invest my viewing time in a season that promises to be no better than last and without the exciting of seeing a crop of new players develop? Seriously, a couple of seasons ago I was more invested in watching Banton and the others in 905 games. I just feel weary thinking about taking in the main team in the fall.

How are others feeling?

 

Take a break from the Siakam trade rumour pile-on and checkout some behind the scenes at Summer League.

 

While rumours, speculations and ‘expert’ grading of trade rumours reach a fever pitch around Pascal Siakam, Sports Illustrated is bringing the conversation back around to OG Anunoby with citing a Bleacher Report of report of a possible trade to the Orlando Magic.

Chris Walder’s quippy tweet in reaction to some OG trade scenarios floating about says “Thanks for making the Toronto Raptors infinitely worse.”

Thoughts?

 

Not sure I agree, but it’s a helpful article in its attempts to lay out the +s and -s of a largely unchanged roster.

I can’t say the prospect is making me want to keep my TSN and Sportsnet subscriptions.

Here’s the con that I just can’t see being avoided even with a new head coach.

The Raptors had players in radically different stages of their careers and they did not have a clear offensive hierarchy, which led to selfish play and frustration throughout the lineup.

Plus, there have been reports dating back several seasons that O.G. Anunoby wants a bigger offensive role, while Barnes is entering his third year and likely wants the same. Bringing back the same roster doesn’t exactly create a clear path for either of those two things to happen.

The Raptors can hope Rajakovic and his .5-second offensive system predicated on unselfish play and ball movement will lead to wins and keep everyone happy, but that is asking a lot of a first-time NBA head coach. After all, players now have certain financial incentives tied to making All-NBA teams and other accolades, giving them legitimate reasons to want to have the ball in their hands more and to take more shots.

Running it back with the same roster along with adding another offensive weapon in Dick does not seem like a good way to turn around the Raptors’ lacklustre chemistry and vibes from last season.

 

What are people here thinking?

After a raft of reports a week or two ago that the Raptors front office was exasperating other teams with their trade efforts in the lead up to the draft, a makeover of the coaching staff, strong messages about a pivot back to an emphasis on development etc., were now hearing ‘nah, we’re good.’

The Raptors appear to be moving slightly closer towards “running it back,” a philosophy that is bent on the notion that the 48-win team from a year ago is in this roster somewhere. To further that end, Masai Ujiri and Bobby Webster have largely been shutting trade talk down despite ravenous interest in their heavy hitters around the league.

Is the Raptors front office so invested in Siakam that they are satisfied to attempt to cruise with what they had + Gradey Dick?

view more: next ›