Good Morning #Canada
Finally, arriving at our our 10th province, Manitoba, and putting this series to rest means no more nightmares. Friendly Manitoba, it says so right on their license plates, also has hundreds of abandoned towns, but today we'll focus on Scarf. Named for William Scarf, not for winter clothing or the more recent term for eating quickly, the settlement began in the 1880s, started to flourish after train service arrived in 1907, and died slowly after train service stopped, with the last residents leaving in the 1980s. But in 2013, the regional mayor decided to sell parcels of land in the ghost town for $10. I wasn't able to find out if this plan to bring Scarf back from the dead was successful, but perhaps the area is cursed. In 2020, a tornado touched down near Scarf, killing two teenagers when their vehicle was swept off the road.
#CanadaIsAwesome #CanadianGhostTowns
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/manitoba-rm-looks-to-sell-ghost-town-lots-for-10-1.2086700
Quite exciting talk:
EFF presents: Rewiring Democracy with Bruce Schneier and Nathan E. Sanders in conversation with Cindy Cohn
3 December, online
https://www.eff.org/event/rewiring-democracy
Dimitry Anastakis - my friend and colleague and, more importantly, historian of Canadian business - on Canada’s long history of trade wars with the US and what this means for our particular moment.
https://www-2.rotman.utoronto.ca/insightshub/economics-tr…
Starting up Triangle (2009) after noticing it on Tubi the other day, before I pass out. Will finish it and the Rabid remake tomorrow. Seems like Triangle is probably gonna be a real mindfuck (not gore or anything, I don't believe). Psychological thriller? We'll see. As usual, going in cold, no idea.
https://boxd.it/1tQG
Good Morning #Canada
This morning, our old Mazda goes in for new brakes, front and back, and install the snow tires. While sipping my coffee, I was wondering about auto stats in Canada....
- Canada ranks 23rd worldwide in vehicles per 1,000 people. USA ranks 10th.
- COVID put and end to rising car ownership. In 2020 there were 473 vehicles for every 1,000 people. Today, it's estimated to be 408.
- 11% of Canadians own 3 or more vehicles, 2% own 5 or more.
- 9% own an electric vehicle or hybrid.
- 78% of Canadians say it would be impossible for them not to have a car.
- 41% wish they had better transportation options to avoid needing a car altogether.
- Compared to 2024, car ownership costs have increased 9 per cent, rising from $5,025 to $5,497 annually.
Data from Wikipedia, #StatsCan, and Car Ownership Index.
#CanadaIsAwesome #Automobile
Bill and Ted's Broadway Debut
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/keanu-reeves-and-alex-winter-reunite-on-stage-in-broadways-waiting-for-godot
Using simultaneous mass accretion and external photoevaporation rates for d203-504 to constrain disc evolution processes
Gavin A. L. Coleman, Thomas J. Haworth, Ilane Schroetter, Olivier Bern\'e
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.12535
Good Morning #Canada
I slept in this morning, getting an extra 90 minutes or so of extra #ZZZs. I usually get 7 to 8 hours of sleep, meeting the Canada Health recommendations, and apparently better than most Canadians. The attached article has some sleepy stats from a study commissioned by IKEA but doesn't address sleeplessness due to stress related furniture building. Some additional data:
- 60% of Canadians say they wake up “well rested”.
- Albertans are sleep-deprived as only 9% say they never find it hard to fall asleep. Compared to Saskatchewan and Manitoba (19%), Ontario (20%), B.C. and Atlantic Canada (27%), and Quebec (28%).
- 47% of us say money and financial matters affected our sleep.
- Quebec residents use more sleep medications (11.5%) than those in Ontario (6.7%), and we have Doug Ford.
- Only 5% of Canadians would give up intimate relations for better sleep.
(Data from Research Co., Leger, #StatsCan)
#CanadaIsAwesome #WakeUp
https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/article/canadians-are-losing-sleep-at-an-alarming-rate-recent-reports-suggest/