JPetherick

JPetherick

  • Commented on Worldcon in the news
    It was Louis Riel who was twice expelled from Canadian Parliament. "Exciting" isn't sufficient. His execution is still considered to have repercussions almost 140 years later....
  • Commented on The coming storm
    We know PP can campaign, much like the current Prime Minister. Can he sway enough voters to gain a majority? Probably not and, in that case, the only party that he could approach for a coalition is the Bloc. And...
  • Commented on Do my Laundry
    Coppicing has been practiced since pre-history in Europe and Asia. For producing wood for construction purposes, coppicing requires planning on a 20-35 year cycle, which would be longer than an average human lifetime until the last two or three centuries....
  • Commented on A fistful of tropes
    Mole salamanders in North America have complex reproductive strategies that, for some species / species complexes, include hybridization and parthenogenesis. The parthenogenetic hybrids are always female and still require insemination, but don't actually use any of the spermatozoa, so they...
  • Commented on A fistful of tropes
    I don't see "Sleeping King / King Asleep in Mountain" on the list, to date. Although the identity and nature of the Sleeper in the Pyramid still remains to be seen....
  • Commented on Go away, Muse, you're drunk (again)
    What if the mage doesn't want to be bound to regularly paying wages to a demon? Could they enslave a demon? Or purchase the captives from demonic war?...
  • Commented on The gathering crisis
    I could ask our technology development group, but only at the risk of getting laughed right out of the room. The proposed technology is a re-invention of ancient methods, dressed up by tech entrepreneurs with surprisingly bad graphics skills. This...
  • Commented on Quantum of Nightmares: spoiler time!
    I had been thinking that the Laundry / SOE-Q Division had been subject to regulatory capture, with all that entails. Although the elves could have been an "out of context" problem....
  • Commented on Oh, 2022!
    Roads, in practice, can be described as a linear grinding process that transforms material into coarse and fine particles. As in any grinding process, the static surface (roadbed) and grinding media (tires) are also eroded to create particles. Roads are...
  • Commented on Oh, 2022!
    Lithium battery recycling Why do the batteries need to be recycled? Batteries removed from vehicles are still perfectly serviceable, if a bit inefficient, for use in a battery farm to store electricity. Eventually, of course, the efficiency drops too...
  • Commented on Quantum of Nightmares
    Per several media articles, acceptable practice in communities in Canada's Arctic is to, instead, observe Ramadan using the sunrise / sunset times of a major city to the south where this is less than 18 hours of daylight. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/yukon-ramadan-muslims-mosque-1.4666461 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/03/ramadan-canada-arctic-fasting-hours-sunlight...
  • Commented on An update on the revolutionary experiment
    The current priorities in Ontario for booster doses merely echo the priorities for first doses. Which were never based upon risk of exposure to the virus but, instead, consequences of infection and labour relations. As for pharmacy testing ... perhaps...
  • Commented on An update on the revolutionary experiment
    There had been conflict between the colonists and the First Nations since the first colonies were founded. Particularly when European nations recruited proxies to attack the colonies of their rivals. The First Nations very likely viewed the British Crown as...
  • Commented on Crib Sheet: The Labyrinth Index
    Doesn't need to be a virus ... see last week's publication concerning [u]Toxoplasma gondii[/u] in hyenas (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-24092-x). Altruistic behaviour might be one of the effects in humans who are infected, but there may be age and gender differences....
  • Commented on Submarine coming through!
    There is no rational explanation for licensing of occupations. In many cases, it does seem like rent-seeking and/or market capture by training institutions. [i]Hairdressers and barbers[/i] Here in Ontario, barbers and hairdressers require a common license. Even though the skills...
  • Commented on Dead Lies Dreaming: Spoilers
    David L @ 443 Most municipalities have forgotten, too, why these services are provided "free at point of use" to residents. As a result, the municipal managers become focused on the cost of delivering said FAPOU services rather than the...
  • Commented on Countdown to Crazy
    The Ontario nuclear plants on the shores of big lakes are still (and always have been) subject to water level rise, and fall. There's a medium- to long-term cycle for precipitation in central North America that affects water levels in...
  • Commented on COVID-19
    I was wrong - it's Ra-223 that is used as a radiopharmaceutical. The precautions about avoiding contamination from urination is because radium is excreted in the urine, at sufficient concentrations that others should not be inhaling any aerosols or ingesting...
  • Commented on COVID-19
    This is very similar to precautions for patients who have received Radium-226 for treatment of metastatic hormone resistant prostate cancer. Which I happened to learn when I went down the rabbit-hole researching why Ra-226 concentrations in the nearby river jumped...
  • Commented on The obligatory general election discussion post
    But it makes for even more boring election night coverage for the media (as if that were possible). We might have to watch regularly scheduled programs or sports rather than endless forecasts of potential seat counts....
  • Commented on The obligatory general election discussion post
    We had one city (London, Ontario) conduct a ranked-ballot election in the last round of municipal elections here in Ontario. The conclusion is that ranked-balloting did not make much difference in the campaign (just as nasty / civil as the...
  • Commented on Normal service will be resumed eventually
    Please accept my condolences....
  • Commented on Crawling from the wreckage
    Further to extrasolar planet detection, 2018 saw advances in the detection and analysis of atmospheres of these extrasolar planets. NASA (okay, not right now because no one is at the office) is stating that these development pave the way for...
  • Commented on What do you know about my inner demons?
    There already IS a massive vogue for going out in disguise. People no longer look twice at pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and other people on the street wearing masks obscuring 60%, or more of their facial features. For an example, count...
  • Commented on Book launches for The Labyrinth Index
    Peter Watts has a recent blog post concerning Sidewalk Labs and Quayside in Toronto. I mean, what could go wrong with corporatizing operation of the Scorpion Stare network?...
  • Commented on Book launches for The Labyrinth Index
    Enjoy Toronto! Lots to see and do for a couple day before the reading - weather is supposed to be reasonable and there should be some entertainment provided by people partaking of the opportunity to consume cannabis in public. Unfortunately,...
  • Commented on The Labyrinth Index: sneak preview!
    Yes, store website states 3 - 5 pm. I will actually be in Toronto that weekend, too. I might take a couple hours off waiting for my daughter's next game at the squash tournament....
  • Commented on The Labyrinth Index: sneak preview!
    Next candidate for largest monotheistic religion, if Sikhism is discounted, would be Zoroastrianism. The UK population is small, approximately 5000. There is some debate concerning Goddess worship and whether it is mono- or polytheistic, or variable depending on individual worship....
  • Commented on Sitrep
    The destruction by fire of a local farmers market in 2013 is an event in Act 1. I was across the road from the garbage dump (at the brand new Costco) just a couple weeks ago when visiting my sister....
  • Commented on Sitrep
    You have me intrigued. Is this new superhero/villain novel by a Canadian author who used actual events in his hometown / novel location as plot points?...
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