pedz @ pedz @lemmy.ca

Posts

2

Comments

404

Joined

2 yr. ago

I didn't vote at the last federal election. I wouldn't have voted for a Conservative, but I was extremely disappointed by both my Liberal and NDP candidates.

Right now my MP is the Greenpeace militant that is now a spokesperson for the oil companies, also supposedly the environment minister.

Even if they protest and don't want it, natives are gonna have a pipeline through their land. But no clean water.

Also, rail worker? Get back to work. Postal worker? Get back to work! Natives protesting? Get back in your reservation!

That's all very inspiring to vote for the Liberals. (/s)

I know the Conservatives would have done the same, and then some. I know it's still preferable to have Liberals in power, even with their despicable hypocrisy. Quite frankly I would prefer NDP policies but they are pretty marginalized on the federal level.

It's just very difficult to find the motivation to vote for any of the candidates in my riding.

Depending on the polls for my riding I may go vote ABC. But since I'm on the Plateau (Laurier Ste-Marie) in Montréal, if anything, Steven Guilbault is going to be replaced by a Bloc or NDP candidate. There's never been a Conservative elected in my riding since its been created in 1988. It's the riding of Gilles Duceppe after all. I don't know. It's really hard to go past my apathy and cynicism since the last couple of elections.

He says it himself

an essentially worthless fish called a smelt.

Life is worthless unless you can profit out of it. If saving that species in that place would be profitable, then it would be worth it. But it's just a worthless fish without any value. That's what life is worth for him.

Agreed.

However Quebec has seen an exception to that with the REM because it's taking from the public to finance an investment fund. So the government gave a whole public train line and is choking the rest of the public train network.

In essence, Philippe Couillard and Denis Coderre started the slow privatization of the public transit network in Montreal by giving public assets and carte blanche to an investment entity that's gonna charge the public transit entity fees for every passenger using its new network. And the public transit entity cannot compete against the investment one, by law.

So obviously, being for profit and for 'friends', the project went ahead at record speed.

Am I too cynical to think they don't really want to build transit infra and just make empty promises.

If any party would really want any rail project to be realized, they would announce it right after the election, not a few months before the next one.

So whatever the system we have, I am under the impression that they will find a way to just promise and never do anything about it.

I like tech, old and new, so:

https://www.youtube.com/@CathodeRayDude

https://www.youtube.com/@TechTangents

https://www.youtube.com/@ConnectionsMuseum

https://www.youtube.com/@VeronicaExplains

https://www.youtube.com/@UsagiElectric

https://www.youtube.com/@PlatimaTinkers

https://www.youtube.com/@RetroBytesUK

https://www.youtube.com/@harkeofficial

I"d also suggest Jeff Geerling but he's close to a million subscribers.

About trains, cycling, transit, and urbanism:

https://www.youtube.com/@OhTheUrbanity

https://www.youtube.com/@BenDurham

https://www.youtube.com/@MilesinTransit

https://www.youtube.com/@JagoHazzard

https://www.youtube.com/@TFTSB

And about hiking, camping, outdoors stuff:

https://www.youtube.com/@StephenJReid

Oh and on languages and etymology:

https://www.youtube.com/@WordsUnravelled

https://www.youtube.com/@RobWords

https://www.youtube.com/@Xidnaf

https://www.youtube.com/@kklein

https://www.youtube.com/@Linguisticae (in French)

https://www.youtube.com/@Linguriosa (in Spanish)

Sure, Quebec could do like other provinces and have screening more accessible. However I hope it doesn't involve seeing a doctor first because it might be difficult to do so if the person doesn't have a family doctor.

At least a screening is not something that should be pressing so the person has time to call 811 every day for weeks before being able to see a doctor.

Not just the police. The "ticket inspectors" in commuter trains here are dressed like they are combating urban warfare and are blocking all the exits of a station and funnel people into a choke point until you show them a valid ticket.

Apparently they need a bulletproof vest to check train tickets here.

This reminds me of the bullies that were blocking halls in school until you gave them money.

Maybe it's the logical progression for them.

Oh, I'm so surprised that any type of rail project in Canada doesn't go according to the political announcement of the project. /s

I would love not to be cynical about this but whatever they announce is probably going to be delayed, new study needed, delayed, new study, cancelled, announced again... Then a new government and everything stalls, then another government that waits till before an election to announce a new project... rince, repeat.

I just read about the other rail project, the supposedly high speed train between Toronto and Quebec City. Well, obviously this will also be delayed if not cancelled.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh69IfHPrnU

I don't know how people get to believe any of this will happen one day.

EDIT: I pasted a link that was also about the high frequency project instead of the high speed one. Or is the news confused about the projects? One or another, it's unfortunately never going to be realized.

Well, yeah. Hehe. The first image with a plow in the snow is very normal where I live. And there are millions living with this. It doesn't convey the meaning of snow where it doesn't normally snow, or bigger snowstorms when they happen, to people living where it snows regularly for a big chunk of the year, but I understand the spirit of the whole anyway.

I was following on status.lemmy.ca and saw that your hosting provider was OVH so I knew it could be a while.

I worked there a few years ago, as a "Customer Advocate", and although their infra is usually nice and affordable, it also comes with the major downside of having practically no support, and being at their mercy for any physical issue.

I remember trying to help people that didn't know about 'screen' and being told by my boss that I was there to help people with billing issues, not to do tech support. I could help with what was offered by OVH, like installing a new OS, but not tell people about screen. Every day we had reports with how many minutes we spent in the bathroom. Once I sent a meme to a co-worker and was warned that I could be fired for doing it again. It's one of the most horrible places I've worked; both for the customers and for the employees.

I still have a dedicated server with them and it's been trouble free for many years. However I'm aware that as soon as anything happens, I'll probably need to move my stuff somewhere else if time is of the essence.

Capitalism is a wonderful system. It leaves no one behind. And if so, they deserve it.

/s

I was kind of expecting it. The question is "What car do you drive?" and not "If you have a car, what's the one you're driving?" because it's to be expected that everyone has or wants a car. So those without cars are not being asked, and saying you don't have one is "not the question". Worse if you don't like them. I'd bet that saying I don't have one but wish I had a specific one would have gained more sympathy.

As a North American that doesn't like cars, I'm just used to that type of reaction. A car is status and prestige. A car defines who you are. If you don't have a car, you're not normal.

None. I don't have one and do not want one. They are a blight. I want them gone.

Yeah, the tready Canada signed with Denmark, that ended the Whiskey War, was just to lul the Danish into a false sense of security. Half of Hans island is not enough. We need more!

Yep. He could have been driving an F-150, bump over the sidewalk, drive over the CEO, then said "ooh, sorry, I didn't see him, he must have been wearing headphones or something", and it would probably have been a valid defensible position for the system.

I do that too but only because it's much easier to help my relatives with Linux than those with Windows.

I even "convert" some people because Llinux is easier for them if I just manage it. I had a neighbor that was using Window on a very old computer, it was slow and choking under the weight of simple updates. Plus, she was always asking me why her computer kept rebooting by itself while it was obviously Windows update. So I installed Mint and all the problems went away.

Anyway I don't want to have to deal with Microsoft accounts, licenses, office365, the general bloat, the ads, the new versions of Windows... I have enough at work, so if I am going to help on my free time, it has to be on the OS I find easier to deal with.

Le singe est sur la branche.

I don't really have a choice as heat is provided by my building, and they just keep it on at all times. So in winter it's pretty much always around 26/27C except when it gets really cold outside and it "drops" a bit. I do like the heat but it's a bit too much. Sometimes I have to open a window. 24C would suffice.

They even keep the heat on in summer so it can rise up to 35C during sunny days, but I have a portable AC to fight the building's system and bring it back down to a "cool" 24/25C.

As long as the tech or the software doesn't become obsolete, or the company doesn't go bankrupt.

You know about the blind people that were able to see for a while but the company making their implants went bankrupt, leaving them blind once more, as their their implants will eventually all stop working?

Yet in 2020, Byland had to find out secondhand that the company had abandoned the technology and was on the verge of going bankrupt. While his two-implant system is still working, he doesn’t know how long that will be the case. “As long as nothing goes wrong, I’m fine,” he says. “But if something does go wrong with it, well, I’m screwed. Because there’s no way of getting it fixed.”

https://spectrum.ieee.org/bionic-eye-obsolete

It's obviously understandable to want to try something, anything, to help with a disability, but relying on private for profit companies for experimental medical devices is far from ideal.

Addendum: Also, disabled people are unfortunately often used as an excuse to push agendas. "We can't have a bike lane there! Think about handicapped people using their car!" Or like "Tesla's FSD will help disabled people get around No need to fund dirty dangerous public transit!! " Or again "Neuralink is going to help disabled people so they must have good intentions and obviously not plan on selling these to the general public eventuality. It's purely for the embiggening of society!"

FSD is soooo full self driving that blind people can't use it as it requires constant babysitting, and more importantly, a driver's license and thr ability to drive a car... for a car that's supposed to drive itself.

Anything coming from Musk is obviously a scam. He's a con artist. He will say anything to convince people. He keeps promising his shit is always just on the verge of revolution but it's mainly just empty words for hype.

Helping the disabled is probably just an afterthought for Neuralink. People are so desperate, they will try anything, and Neuralink will be the creep profiting off them.

I was 15 during the 1998 ice storm.

It's obviously not as dangerous as a tornado or an earthquake or a flood, but it's still a natural disaster, and disrupted society in the region for weeks and months.

At first it was difficult to realize the size of the catastrophe but then millions went without power, the infrastructure crumbled under the ice and roads became impracticable. The magnitude of the disaster became apparent when the army had to come and help.

Luckily I lived in a rural area at the time and we relied on a wood furnace for heat and hot water. We also shared a generator with other family members so I had power a few hours a day. Compared to people without heat water, food or electricity, it went ok for my family.

It took about 10 days for my region to have power back, while others had to wait for up to 30 days.

This left its mark on me and now I try to be prepared, have batteries charged, solar panels, water reserves, food for a few days, a camping stove, ways to keep warm, etc., just in case.