eleventy_7

I don’t think this applies to all 80 year olds though. Some of the smartest, most open-minded people I’ve met have been 70+ year old university professors. These are the kind of people who retired, and then came back to teach because they were bored. It’s definitely possible for humans to retain their critical thinking well into that late stage of life, but I’ll grant you that most who make it to that age don’t seem to manage it.

I can only hope that if and when I reach that many decades on this planet, I’ll still have the kind of clarity of mind to not get stuck on ‘autopilot’…

I don’t doubt the possibility that Israelis were behind this attack, but there’s a good chance this really was done by Hamas/Hamas related groups. from this post to the sub just earlier today, a Hamas official mentioned potential attacks against the pier:

https://apnews.com/article/hamas-khalil-alhayya-qatar-ceasefire-1967-borders-4912532b11a9cec29464eab234045438

Al-Hayya also implicitly threatened that Hamas would attack Israeli or other forces who might be stationed around a floating pier the U.S. is scrambling to build along Gaza’s coastline to deliver aid by sea.

“We categorically reject any non-Palestinian presence in Gaza, whether at sea or on land, and we will deal with any military force present in these places, Israeli or otherwise … as an occupying power,” he said.

so it could be a case of Hamas cutting off their nose to spite their face. I’m gonna have to see this reported by non Israeli news sources before I believe it though.

I wish I could find more data on this subject going back to the early 20th century, all I could find was US defense spending. Info like this is a lot more useful with historical precedents to compare it to.

maybe to prevent being identified? If the UK is broadening its powers to silence protesters like this, even being photographed as part of a movement of quote unquote “violence, hatred or intolerance” could be enough to face fines, arrest, or other social consequences.

I wont comment on the efficacy of the search itself—I don’t know enough to meaningfully hold a stance about it—but I think you also have to consider the symbolic meaning of the government funding this search. There’s a long history of federal and provincial governments at best ignoring indigenous people and their struggles, if not actively pursuing policy that harms them.

This search has become a flashpoint for an accumulation of unrest over that history, it can’t be viewed in a vacuum. The sheer poetic horror of murder victims rotting in a landfill makes this example particularly abhorrent, but it’s hardly the only time the police and justice system has failed indigenous women and girls. The government putting a lot of funding into this specific search is bigger than just the outcome of the search itself.

I don’t think it’s a bad example in this case, since the US hasn’t lost it’s own cultural heritage much. For better or for worse, the US does a great job of assimilating people and making them “American”.

That’s pretty much exactly what Quebec is trying to accomplish, right? something like ‘if you want to live in Quebec, you have to become Quebecois’. So if US policy doesn’t blanket ban other languages in signage and social services and still manages to ‘americanize’ people, then Quebec could potentially do the same.

The US and Quebec are in pretty different situations, so it’s not a perfect example, but I think it is a pretty good basis for an argument against Quebec’s culturally protectionist policies.

I’ve really enjoyed The Nations of Canada by Greg Koabel. it’s a linear narrative history of Canada that runs from pre-contact indigenous oral tradition and archeology to (so far) the mid 19th- century.

I’ve found it really expanded my understanding of Canadian history and culture, doing a much better job than any of the canadian history classes I took in school!

I’ve been using mullvad for a few years—since PIA got bought out—and would recommend it if you’re concerned about trust.

So, using a VPN doesn’t actually eliminate all possibility of being tracked. All you’re doing is replacing who can potentially see all of your data, from your ISP to the VPN provider, so trust is actually a pretty important factor.

When I switched the consensus at the time was that mullvad was the most true to its privacy statement, i.e. trustworthy. A lot of other vpns are cheaper or have more bells and whistles, but have histories of data breaches or scandals, are based in countries with weak privacy/strong surveillance laws, or are owned by companies that may have an interest in the customers data (like with the PIA acquisition I mentioned).

Mullvad too has had a few incidents where they were served court orders to provide data to the police, but iirc no data was ever actually given up. Plus, they allow a bunch of different privacy-centric payment methods, including just sending cash in an envelope.

I’d recommend taking a look at some more recent discussions comparing VPNs but I think considering mullvad is a good place to start.

I remember a little while back when the British museum was making headlines about the return of stolen artifacts, I was initially really surprised and pleased that they were making progress towards repatriating some of their collection.

Then I actually read the article and it turned out some artifacts had been stolen from the museum and they wanted them back. :l

Not surprised to see Manitoba has some of the longest wait times in the country, the provincial government has been gutting our health services for years.

Last time I went to the emergency center (pre-covid) I was with a friend who had broken his leg, and they had us waiting for more than 8 hours.