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When Will USA Border Open to Canadians?
Posted August 25, 2021 by Ben
On August 9th 2021, Canada opened its border to all fully vaccinated Americans allowing tourists from the United States to visit the country once again. The US border remains closed to Canadians, however, and American authorities recently extended the border closure until September 21st citing COVID-19 transmission rates south of the border as well as […]
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I’m so tired of Teh Stupid!
Posted January 16, 2023 by Anonymous
The question asked by nations around the world in 2016 was “Why is US politics so stupid?” because America’s idiotic Electoral College system allowed Trump to become president even though he did not win the popular vote. Now nations will aga…
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Where Can Vaccinated Canadians Travel?
Posted July 1, 2021 by Ben
Most Canadians are now fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Consequently, Canadians are starting to think about international travel again, and are beginning to research possible vacation destinations. This leads to the question, which countries can a fully vaccinated Canadian visit? As of July 2021, Canadian citizens who have received two doses of the Pfizer, Moderna, or […]
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Some amazing Christmas stories
Posted December 26, 2022 by Anonymous
For millions of people in Canada and in the US, it has been an awful Christmas – terrible weather, monster storms, no power, cancelled flights, people stuck in transit. Dozens of people have died. The only uplifting aspect in this situation is the…
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Ukraine update – Bob Rae: “To base decisions on fear would be devastating for democracy”
Posted January 18, 2023 by Anonymous
I’m doing a Ukraine update every two or three weeks now – my last one was Dec 28, when I talked about the resilience and courage of the Ukraine people.Tonight’s update covers the recent events in Dnipro, as well as analyst expectations for the future -…
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Keeping up with the Ukraine War
Posted December 28, 2022 by Anonymous
The resilience and courage of the Ukraine people is one of the most inspirational events our society has ever seen. This New York Times photo essay Ukraine Under Attack: Images from the Russian Invasion shows what Ukrainians have had to …
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Today’s News: Another one gone
Posted January 20, 2023 by Anonymous
One of our growth industries these days is baby boomer deaths — today, it was David Crosby: “If you’re sad today, just remember the world is over 4 billion years old and you somehow managed to exist at the same time as David Crosby.”HT: @simonp…
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US Land Border Opens to Canadians
Posted November 8, 2021 by Ben
After being closed for nearly 19 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, on November 8th 2021 the United States land border officially opened to all fully vaccinated Canadians. US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has announced they will be staffing their border at pre-pandemic levels, but warns that wait times may be longer than in […]
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It’s another edition of “Christ, What An Asshole!”
Posted December 30, 2022 by Anonymous
So one the dude-bros that Musk let back onto Twitter in November was the “social media personality” and wealthy kickboxer Andrew Tate – and it didn’t take long before Tate indulged himself in needless, gratituous, misogynistic insults: Hello @GretaThu…
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Funny stuff
Posted January 22, 2023 by Anonymous
First, a few recent cartoons:
Next, here are some fascinating accounts to follow:
Global distribution of flamingos pic.twitter.com/SfTDLzYfzV
—
Amazing Maps (@amazingmap) January 20, 2023
In 1992, around 29,000 rubber ducks fell off a cargo ship in the Pacific Ocean. This is where they made landfall. pic.twitter.com/DmIKUOBuN4
— Amazing Maps (@amazingmap) December 14, 2022
When you can’t afford a trip to Europe pic.twitter.com/xVtvzwJK7H
— Terrible Maps (@TerribleMaps) January 7, 2023
And in Milan, which is in northern Italy and closer to Central Europe, a great cathedral was commissioned in 1386.
It took centuries to build and mixed countless Gothic styles – from the Perpendicular to the Flamboyant – with Renaissance elements; the result was totally unique. pic.twitter.com/WTuG8w1frb
— The Cultural Tutor (@culturaltutor) January 21, 2023
— Papa Woof und Krampus und Bleaken (@woofknight) January 6, 2023
This is cute art for kids…pic.twitter.com/9ri9KkvHmC
— Figen (@TheFigen_) January 14, 2023
Here’s the full story! pic.twitter.com/dIHmGVMiz4
— WeRateDogs® (@dog_rates) January 18, 2023
AAAAAAAAY back ! https://t.co/qHHsE4ZREX
— Henry Winkler (@hwinkler4real) January 21, 2023
How big is this?
Please answer in jiraffes or half-jiraffes as is proper for asteroids.
— jrenom (@jrenom) January 20, 2023
(If you can’t remember the details about the “half a giraffe” asteroid measurement, its at the end of this post from March – Today’s News: The end of the beginning?)
Triggers 😂 pic.twitter.com/PqDeCcoykB
— James Cameron (@lumin8) January 21, 2023
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Pre-Entry COVID Test No Longer Required at Canadian Border
Posted April 2, 2022 by Ben
As of April 1st 2022, the Canadian border will no longer require a pre-arrival negative COVID-19 test from fully vaccinated travellers entering or returning to the country. Previously, a rapid antigen test or a PCR test indicating a person does not have COVID was required by border authorities. This rule change should encourage Canadians to […]
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Happy New Year!
Posted January 1, 2023 by Anonymous
✏️ As drawn by @AnnTelnaes: Hoping for a better year ahead https://t.co/3Rqp9s3sjf pic.twitter.com/DhESNz78dh— Washington Post Opinions (@PostOpinions) December 31, 2022 To bring in the new year, I have gathered some of the funnier posts I saw over the…
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And whoosh! The McGonigal spy story is gone!
Posted January 25, 2023 by Anonymous
Was there ever a conspiracy theory more bizarre, more crazy, than believing that Russia was behind Trump’s unexpected 2016 election victory? But just because something sounds crazy doesn’t mean it isn’t true. For years now, I have believed so…
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Canadian Border Now Fully Open
Posted November 24, 2022 by Ben
On October 1st 2022, the Government of Canada removed all COVID-19 border measures such as required proof of vaccination, random testing, and mandatory isolation for high-risk travelers. For the first time since early 2020, the Canadian border is operating under “normal” conditions. For example: Americans interested in visiting Canada no longer need to download the […]
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Animal crackers
Posted January 3, 2023 by Anonymous
“I had dozens of utterly bizarre experiences that were also Perfectly Normal. This is because the human condition is vast and also Very f*ck*ng Weird.” (cc: @PaulDechene) #PublicTransport https://t.co/evb0ELqgEr— Schmutzie 🦉 (@schmutzie) January 1, 202…
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Today’s Scene: Enshittification
Posted January 27, 2023 by Anonymous
I used to title these posts “From the Substacks” but good commentary is not just Substacks these days, its Medium and Patreon and blogs and opinion pieces from all over. So I will call these posts Today’s Scene – a collection of observations and o…
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Today’s News: “Boo-urns” is trending
Posted December 12, 2022 by Anonymous
I think I should post this before all these tweets get deleted. And to begin, can I just say “Christ, what an asshole!” Here is how it started with Elon Musk yesterday: Truth resonates …— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 12, 2022 And here …
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Today’s News: Update on Covid
Posted January 5, 2023 by Anonymous
I haven’t posted much about the Covid news lately, but I have been gathering together some of the articles and tweets that seem to summarize the most helpful advice right now. TL,DR: wear a mask, damn it!Above is a New York Times chart that summarizes…
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Today’s Great Stuff
Posted January 29, 2023 by Anonymous
Here are some of the funny tweets and stories I have seen over the last couple of weeks: I am so tired of living like it’s the 1600s. Can I afford eggs at the market? Are my friends gonna die in the plague? Puritans coming for my sinful lifestyle. I wa…
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From the Substacks – Ukraine, Carol of the Bells, Emergencies Act, Musk, & Academia
Posted December 14, 2022 by Anonymous
This may take you a minute but just wait, you’ll get it soon:We are starting to get into the “end of the year” takes where people are summarizing what happened this year and what it all means. First up, a very useful summary from Timothy Snyder’s …
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Finally the crazy is over!
Posted January 7, 2023 by Anonymous
Yeah, sure. I spent the evening watching the US House of Representatives try to elect a Speaker. Finally, they did. Just barely. A head of lettuce— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) January 7, 2023 And this was fun moment, wasn’t it: Picture is…
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Today’s News: “In the Covid era, the vulnerable die earlier, the remaining become vulnerable earlier”
Posted January 31, 2023 by Anonymous
I’ve been noticing and collecting a variety of recent posts and tweets about Covid and our situation these days, and the challenges we will be facing in 2023.
This pretty well sums it up, really:
In the COVID era, the vulnerable people die earlier, the remained ones become vulnerable earlier.
— Hiroshi Yasuda (保田浩志) (@Yash25571056) January 14, 2023
And as for the continuing political implications:
Many people expected a huge explosion in babies after everybody stayed home for COVID but I didn’t realize they would be 20-50 year old men flying “F*ck Trudeau” flags screaming about imaginary rights they don’t understand.
— Dean from Winnipeg (@Dean_Winnipeg) January 30, 2023
Yes indeed:
… the same people who were wrong to say that we all had to catch it are the same people who were wrong to say that there is no way to stop it are the same people who were wrong to say that it’s just a cold are the same people who were wrong to say that kids don’t get sick …
— tern (@1goodtern) January 30, 2023
… are the same people who were wrong to say that there is no airborne transmission are the same people who were wrong to say that the pandemic would only affect people in China because western healthcare is better are the same people who are all complete and utter idiots.
— tern (@1goodtern) January 30, 2023
Why do we even hear from any single one of these people ever any more?
— tern (@1goodtern) January 30, 2023
But wait, there’s more….
In Stat, Helen Branswell writes a good article about the “scariants” – XB what? BQ huh? Do you need to keep up with Omicron’s ever-expanding offspring?:
When people start to develop immunity to a virus, it must evolve to be able to continue to infect people. Three years into our coexistence with SARS-2, most people on the planet have either been infected (in some cases several times) or vaccinated (in some cases multiple times) or some combination of the two. The virus must employ new tricks to get around our mounting defenses.“It is important to explain that variants will continue to emerge as the very survival of the virus depends on it,” Pollard explained. “We can expect new variants for the rest of our collective lifetimes, but we might anticipate less frequent waves in the future as immunity across the population continues to build.”
Others are not so sanquine about the virus evolution:
Canada had its worst year of the pandemic in 2022. Four waves caused by different Omicron variants. Now we have a sustained level of virus and hospitalizations caused by the “variant soup”. Forgive me if I don’t agree that we should stop talking about variant evolution. pic.twitter.com/4A1V5zYWWy
— T. Ryan Gregory (@TRyanGregory) January 17, 2023
In The Tyee, Andrew Nikiforuk writes We Now Face An Army of Covid Viruses — a useful article to read in full, but here is a summary of his points:
Here are six observations on viral evolution and how it may shape our lives in this, the fourth year of the pandemic.
1. One virus has become many…2. The new COVID soup is a unique experiment in evolution…3. What were viral peaks are now a constant rising sea of infections with high and low tides…4. One pandemic has morphed into regional epidemics…5. Reinfections rarely happened. Now they are commonplace…6. We can do more to blunt the evolutionary threat of COVID subvariants…
Here is a useful tweet thread summary of the current situation — I am copying some of the most significant tweets in this thread:
🇨🇦 Did you know that Canada recently passed 50,000 COVID deaths?https://t.co/UW7LCjptt1
3/
— T. Ryan Gregory (@TRyanGregory) January 26, 2023
~~~
🇨🇦 Did you know that there are now more than 700 Omicron subvariants, and that many of them can escape prior immunity and are resistant to available treatments?
— T. Ryan Gregory (@TRyanGregory) January 26, 2023
~~~
🇨🇦 Did you know that the pandemic is not over?
11/ pic.twitter.com/0if90T3RPA
— T. Ryan Gregory (@TRyanGregory) January 26, 2023
Some recent comments on Covid epidemiology:
The COVID pandemic will not disappear until engineers address the niche the virus favours, says MIT nuclear engineer Charles Forsberg: dirty air in crowded indoor spaces, a product of modern buildings designed to save energy.https://t.co/t0FVc5Zpd1
— The Tyee (@TheTyee) January 12, 2023
We are dealing with a rapidly mutating, novel, airborne virus. Virologists said from the beginning that we needed to lower transmission or the virus would mutate too fast for our vaccines & treatments to keep up. That’s what’s happening now b/c ppl didn’t listen.
— Bree Newsome Bass (@BreeNewsome) January 16, 2023
The deadliest misinformation about Covid was that there was immunity by infection
In its pursuit
And in its aftermath
— Anthony J Leonardi, PhD, MS (@fitterhappierAJ) January 27, 2023
Here are some comments about Long Covid:
This is a must-read about how public health officials and government are silent on the crisis of Long Covid disability.
As @sophiehh14 reminds us, BC has not even tried to determine how many are suffering from Long Covid. How much of the workforce is affected? https://t.co/ZUqU50BBkO
— Andrew Longhurst #VaccinesPlus (@a_longhurst) January 27, 2023
And we shared the frustration that most clinicians can’t or won’t see the linkage between upstream sars-2, and downstream infection or autoimmunity. They ARE linkable via history, serology or even PCR (seeing a high cycle positive “tail”)
— David Fisman (@DFisman) January 27, 2023
Which effects of Covid are permanent?
Are people who are 25 now and infected twice a year going to carry their immune system damage all their life?
I would recommend not using yourself for practical research to answer this one. https://t.co/vNCYYAIOof— tern (@1goodtern) January 27, 2023
I read a lot of Covid research.
See my pinned tweet for the angle I view it from.
I don’t understand all the research, but here’s what I do understand:Specialists representing every bodily function are completely freaked out by what SARS-CoV-2 is damaging in their area.
🔥👇— tern (@1goodtern) January 17, 2023
~~~
Do you know the prefix ‘dys’?
It basically means ‘off balance’.Use Google’s search engine.
Write ‘ Covid dys ‘ into the search bar, wait a moment, then look at the autocomplete suggestions. pic.twitter.com/tnSTf9tmAO
— tern (@1goodtern) January 17, 2023
Long Covid now seems to be called Covid DECATI – Delayed Effect Cardiovascular And Thrombotic Injury:
A friend had Covid in July and a heart attack four weeks later.
That’s Covid Decati.Covid DECATI.
Delayed
Effect
Cardiovascular
And
Thrombotic
Injury.#CovidDecati— tern (@1goodtern) January 21, 2023
‘ ~~~
If you want to know what you can do about it, I’m afraid my best advice is to stop catching Covid, and try to live healthily.
Good diet, good weight, good lifestyle.I come at this from the risk reduction and hazard prevention point of view. 😔
— tern (@1goodtern) January 21, 2023
Finally, some new statistics on excess deaths.
The anti-vaccine and anti-public health restrictions crowd has always tried to pin excess deaths on anything but the actual virus that vaccines and public health restrictions try to contain and limit, and the data keeps telling them, nope.
— Bruce Arthur (@bruce_arthur) January 20, 2023
Stats Canada recently released some info about Canada’s excess deaths over the last three years — more than 50,000 extra from January 2020 to October 2022, mostly due to Covid and its damage to our health, but also due to drug overdoses.
Stats Canada says:
There is evidence of excess mortality when weekly deaths are consistently higher than the expected number, but especially when they exceed the range of what is expected over several consecutive weeks.Provisional data show there were an estimated 53,741 excess deaths in Canada from the end of March 2020 to the end of August 2022, 7.6% more deaths than expected had there not been a pandemic. During this period, at least 42,215 deaths were directly attributed to COVID-19.
The worst times in Canada for excess deaths were January/ February 2022 in Ontario and Quebec, and mid-April/ mid-May 2022 in Alberta and BC.
Though Canada’s 7.6 percent excess death percentage seems high to me, England is reporting even worse percentages:
Excess deaths in 2022 among worst in 50 years https://t.co/k2txe3is2V
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) January 10, 2023
Modern humans are actually terrible at holding more than one piece of information in our minds at a time, but please try to understand that 20% excess deaths probably means excess other things like disability and hospitalisation and unemployment and illness. https://t.co/T0QDFvaN2y
— tern (@1goodtern) January 25, 2023
Finally, an interesting thread on Covid in the workforce:
The merchants of doubt spent a year trying to make the labour shortage seem like a mystery that had nothing to do w the virus. They openly mocked anyone that brought up long covid. It took a year but the media is finally pointing out that millions of workers are dead or disabled.
— Dr. Lisa Iannattone (@lisa_iannattone) January 30, 2023
Most of the media and their go-to pundits avoid addressing any science and data that might cause fear or discomfort for as long as they possibly can. Until it can’t be ignored anymore. When did feeling scared in times of uncertainty become a fate worse than long term disability?
— Dr. Lisa Iannattone (@lisa_iannattone) January 30, 2023
All of the soothing messaging being pushed in the media seems to be designed to dismantle our self-preservation instinct. Meanwhile, you know who’s still big on self-preservation? The Davos class. Hmmm 🤔
We should all be #DavosSafe.
— Dr. Lisa Iannattone (@lisa_iannattone) January 30, 2023
Tern gets the last word:
Which one of these two points do you think will come first?
A) The moment it’s forking obvious that the reason everyone’s unable to work is long covid.
B) Widespread brain decerebration to the extent that no one can understand anything at all anyway— tern (@1goodtern) January 30, 2023
UPDATE: Just saw this one, about booster shots:
Great thread here about a very pertinent study. Echoes a lot of my thoughts re. COVID-19 boosters.
In practical terms, I’m going to be hunting down either a second Moderna bivalent dose or Novavax in the next 1-2 months. I wish they were updated much more frequently, though. https://t.co/VoCr1ylboO
— Adithya Ramachandran (@AdithyaR_YXE) January 31, 2023
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Today’s News: Twitter, We Hardly Knew Ye
Posted December 17, 2022 by Anonymous
The chaos on Twitter continues — but I am now thinking it is forcing us to think about social media in a new way. I am seeing a number of thoughtful posts lately and here are some good ones. This is a great summary from Ryan Broderi…
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Some neat stuff
Posted January 9, 2023 by Anonymous
And here’s some more neat stuff. First, some great articles — – From the New York Times, a 2023 Astronomy and Space Calendar that you can add to your Google calendar, plus an article about how the Calendar was developed. Here is the tw…
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“Abandoned to violence” – Ottawa People’s Commission first report
Posted February 3, 2023 by Anonymous
The Public Order Emergency Commission report is due this month, but already we have an initial report from the Ottawa People’s Commission — a community initiative set up last June when it looked like official Ottawa just wanted to deep-six the whole m…
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Today’s News: The Beginning of the End?
Posted December 20, 2022 by Anonymous
Three stories tonight seem to have the same theme — that it may be the beginning of the end for Pierre Poilievre, for Elon Musk and for Donald Trump. First, for Pierre Poilievre: Evan Scrimshaw analyzes the Angus Reid poll tonight, comparing…
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Some things to think about, when you have a minute…
Posted January 12, 2023 by Anonymous
Here are some predictions for 2023 from Visual Capitalist Here’s something else to ponder: Andrew Wyeth, Fence Line ,1967,watercolor on paper21.9 x 30″”I prefer winter & fall,when you feel the bone structure of the landscape-the loneliness of it,t…
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How ya gonna keep ’em in Paree after they’ve been down on the farm?
Posted December 21, 2022 by Anonymous
One of the lasting impacts of the pandemic, I think, will be the destruction of the “downtown office” concept as an organizing principle for cities. Historically, it has always taken wars to get North Americans to travel — the Civil War was…
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What a week!
Posted January 14, 2023 by Anonymous
Sad news from all over today: Jeff Beck, Robbie Bachman, Lisa Marie Presley … gone. ☹️Life is fragile folks. pic.twitter.com/XJ7FVj7pJu— Larry Updike (@LarryUpdike) January 13, 2023 In other news, one has to wonder how incredibly stupid will th…
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Best Christmas TV ads
Posted December 23, 2022 by Anonymous
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! — or at least, its the time when companies actually put some thought into their television ads, and when ad companies do their best work too. Here are some this year that I liked.John Lewis & Partners is k…
Interesting Fact of the Month
Did you know visiting Canada with a DUI is difficult? If a US citizen has a DUI or DWI they could be denied entry at the Canadian border! Even a misdemeanor for reckless driving, or a traffic ticket for impaired driving, can prevent an American from entering Canada. In order to enter Canada with DUI charges many people hire an immigration lawyer. Going to Canada from USA with other criminal convictions like theft or assault can also be challenging.
Did you know visiting Canada with a DUI is difficult? If a US citizen has a DUI or DWI they could be denied entry at the Canadian border! Even a misdemeanor for reckless driving, or a traffic ticket for impaired driving, can prevent an American from entering Canada. In order to enter Canada with DUI charges many people hire an immigration lawyer. Going to Canada from USA with other criminal convictions like theft or assault can also be challenging.
