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Homerificus

@homerificus

Policy, laughs, banter, news. Canadian engineer.

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Latest posts by Homerificus @homerificus

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Cute beaver sculpture in the playground at Biidaasige Park

02.03.2026 01:56 πŸ‘ 19 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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Worst case Ontario Council, province, scheme to tax new housing in housing shortage

The value of having the province freeze development charges was that they're basically irresistible to local politicians.

They get to spend money, and none of the cost can be traced back to them.

Oh, you new house is $50k more expensive? Wow, that's crazy.

substack.com/@deny/note/p...

26.02.2026 15:24 πŸ‘ 23 πŸ” 9 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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The Rise of the Manhattan Mega-Mansion In the West Village and other historic neighborhoods, buyers are consolidating apartments and combining townhomes, a sign of New York’s allure to the ultra-rich.

Behind the preserved historical facades, the ultra-rich are buying up adjacent townhomes in the West Village and Upper East Side, combining them into a megamansion. It's part of a broader trend of small multifamily buildings being turned into single-family homes. www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...

26.02.2026 14:05 πŸ‘ 301 πŸ” 104 πŸ’¬ 6 πŸ“Œ 33

Coming back to this story, the care economy has been driving the Canadian job market since the pandemic, but especially 2024-2025, despite the clampdown on international study permits.
It's quite something that this sector is not part of the Canada Strong industrial strategy.

11.02.2026 18:03 πŸ‘ 53 πŸ” 36 πŸ’¬ 5 πŸ“Œ 2

I honestly can't imagine predicting a $1.8 billion shortfall, ending up with a $2 billion surplus instead and then having the guts to call it "sound planning." It is actually very poor planning! www.thestar.com/news/gta/is-...

12.02.2026 00:38 πŸ‘ 17 πŸ” 6 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0
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"(Region of Waterloo) currently lacks basic information on how much water the province has allowed companies to take, how many permits are active and what cumulative impacts those permits may be having. Concerns are also spreading beyond Waterloo." #onpoli

@nationalobserver.com

11.02.2026 15:53 πŸ‘ 23 πŸ” 25 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 2

At this point it seems no one understands reserve funds. They are majority unspent capital budget from previous years, not rainy day funds. Spending down the reserves is good.

10.02.2026 19:42 πŸ‘ 18 πŸ” 10 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 0

Obviously a very small thing, but I found Bloc Quebecois leader Yves-FranΓ§ois Blanchet departing from French just now to speak in English to the families in Tumbler Ridge quite touching.

11.02.2026 19:23 πŸ‘ 150 πŸ” 13 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 2
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Misplaced Nostalgia This short article appeared in the Coolidge Review, where it is much more nicely formatted.

"Was health care cheaper in the 1950s? Yes, though for many diseases, including heart conditions and cancer, treatment then consisted of asking whether you wished to see a priest, a minister, or a rabbi to send you off to the next world." www.grumpy-economist.com/p/misplaced-...

11.02.2026 16:49 πŸ‘ 34 πŸ” 9 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 1

Like, force a Minister to put his name to a statement still but allow them to make a substantive response with cited facts and figures and then let the opposition make a responsive challenge but instead of doing it in five minute on camera do it over a few days or longer.

04.02.2026 19:45 πŸ‘ 21 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

Genuinely think the public might be better served by abolishing it as a regular part of the parliamentary orders and moving the entire thing to written questions and answers published online (through a formal process documented in Hansard or the Gazette or whatever.)

04.02.2026 19:42 πŸ‘ 26 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 5 πŸ“Œ 0
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9 Toronto police officers facing charges related to tow-truck violence: source | CBC News Nine Toronto police officers are facing charges related to violent incidents involving tow trucks and operators across the Greater Toronto Area, multiple sources tell CBC News.

"Officers are accused of trafficking, leaking addresses to hitmen, and leaking police officer addresses, the sources said.

The investigation also uncovered a conspiracy to kill a unit commander at the Toronto South Detention Centre, the sources said."

Holy Christ. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

04.02.2026 23:46 πŸ‘ 279 πŸ” 146 πŸ’¬ 15 πŸ“Œ 46
John Madeley Sr. and Jr. are charged with numerous crimes.

John Madeley Sr. and Jr. are charged with numerous crimes.

I periodically feel self-conscious about the fact I ended up being a provincial political journalist like my dad but, hey, at least we didn't end up father-and-son criminal cops. (From today's charge list in the TPS corruption case)

05.02.2026 16:49 πŸ‘ 85 πŸ” 12 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 2

It’s a tough burden being one of the few dozen who hold this objectively correct opinion, but it’s our cross to bear πŸ˜”

05.02.2026 01:50 πŸ‘ 259 πŸ” 20 πŸ’¬ 11 πŸ“Œ 1

playing with fire here

bsky.app/profile/lily...

23.01.2026 18:24 πŸ‘ 62 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 6 πŸ“Œ 0

Modry says they've met with the US administration three times, and if the referendum passes but negotiations fail, Premier Smith could "declare sovereignty unilaterally," which other countries would acknowledge.

23.01.2026 03:05 πŸ‘ 94 πŸ” 32 πŸ’¬ 12 πŸ“Œ 53

@dov.bsky.social holy shit they're literally doing the LPR/DPR + novorussyia plan lmao

bsky.app/profile/lily...

23.01.2026 18:53 πŸ‘ 44 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 4 πŸ“Œ 0

I understand that Canadian provincial sovereignty structured differently than U.S. statehood but this feels like U.S. Government officials are saying the U.S. back the seperatists in a possible Canadian civil conflict?

23.01.2026 18:46 πŸ‘ 22 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 1

An underrated factor in "why don't people in wealthy societies have more kids" is changing societal norms that now expect even older kids to be chaperoned by an adult any time they are in public, and to be chauffeured by a parent as their only means of transportation

16.01.2026 05:20 πŸ‘ 3053 πŸ” 538 πŸ’¬ 98 πŸ“Œ 52

My colleague @dkspaulding.bsky.social inspired this excellent @cnn.com piece on #nuclear testing with this compelling story: blog.ucs.org/dylan-spauld...

16.01.2026 15:03 πŸ‘ 13 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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everything I dislike is indefinably similar the vector of nastiness

I wonder about how seriously we should take one of the most interesting properties of LLMs ... backofmind.substack.com/p/everything...

16.01.2026 15:06 πŸ‘ 16 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 5 πŸ“Œ 5

I'll add that with a cap this low, Chinese automakers will have strong incentives to bring their higher-end models to Canada, not the cheapest ones. When the US restricted Japanese auto import volumes, Toyota developed the Lexus.

16.01.2026 15:04 πŸ‘ 38 πŸ” 14 πŸ’¬ 4 πŸ“Œ 0
TVO Today | Current Affairs Journalism, Documentaries and Podcasts

I think this still largely holds up: Ontario's problem isn't Chinese EV imports (which will be modest even with today's deal) it's a floundering domestic auto sector and no prospect for sufficient demand for the batteries we want to build. www.tvo.org/article/anal...

16.01.2026 14:58 πŸ‘ 107 πŸ” 33 πŸ’¬ 8 πŸ“Œ 5

Hope the second recovery is faster!

08.01.2026 04:27 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

genuinely baffled at how despite how rapidly we've made progress in recommender systems, actual recommendations have gotten worse

29.11.2025 22:43 πŸ‘ 191 πŸ” 10 πŸ’¬ 12 πŸ“Œ 4

part of the reason i am genuinely irritated with the gAI/AGI cult is because there is real societal benefits in using ML techniques in medical care + weather analysis, and instead people get annoyed with anything that gets lumped in with the plagiarism machine

29.11.2025 17:43 πŸ‘ 939 πŸ” 188 πŸ’¬ 26 πŸ“Œ 25

i hate to be all like β€œdecline of culture” but, god damn, kids’ TV (outside apple TV+) has sloppified worse than any other genre. And don’t reply β€œwhat about bluey?” bc that’s not a show for kids, thats a show for parents produced so that kids don’t mind watching it and i will not debate that point.

29.11.2025 16:28 πŸ‘ 63 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 15 πŸ“Œ 4

Concrete walls fix this. This never gets factored in to carbon analyses of light wood frame vs. concrete construction – that light wood frame turns people off from the concept of sharing walls (nevermind floors) with other people, and pushes them out to the suburbs.

29.08.2025 22:17 πŸ‘ 130 πŸ” 9 πŸ’¬ 7 πŸ“Œ 1

β€˜AI’ as currently construed is a technology that can run on a laptop. β€˜Social Media’ as currently construed is approx ten firms that exist because of specific policy choices by governments and network-effects they got by being the first mover. People have this exactly backwards.

27.08.2025 07:39 πŸ‘ 214 πŸ” 30 πŸ’¬ 4 πŸ“Œ 0
Lallemand said he borrowed his friend’s boat and was fishing near Venise-en-QuΓ©bec, which is roughly 15 kilometres north of the U.S. border at the northern tip of Lake Champlain. He says he has been fishing for decades and is adamant that he was in Canadian waters when the Coast Guard showed up and told him to turn off his engine, to which he complied.

The three officers told him he was in U.S. territory.

β€œI said, β€˜No, I’m very sorry, I’m in Canada.’ And I said I’m polite enough to talk to you guys but you cannot arrest me. β€˜You can’t come across the border and pick me up’ but they did,” he recalled.

Lallemand started his engine and said he wanted to talk with the officers by the shore, but the Coast Guard followed and tried to push him into the U.S., which is what caused him to go overboard.

β€œThey’re tying my boat to their boat. They’re not even taking care of me. The third time I went down, coming out with water in my mouth, spitting it out, I said throw me a buoy,” he said.

Once on their vessel, he said he was aggressively put in handcuffs. β€œI never saw somebody so angry,” he said.

He was then handed over to U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers, who fingerprinted him, put him in a jail cell with his clothes soaking wet, and gave him a β€œdirty” blanket.

Lallemand said he borrowed his friend’s boat and was fishing near Venise-en-QuΓ©bec, which is roughly 15 kilometres north of the U.S. border at the northern tip of Lake Champlain. He says he has been fishing for decades and is adamant that he was in Canadian waters when the Coast Guard showed up and told him to turn off his engine, to which he complied. The three officers told him he was in U.S. territory. β€œI said, β€˜No, I’m very sorry, I’m in Canada.’ And I said I’m polite enough to talk to you guys but you cannot arrest me. β€˜You can’t come across the border and pick me up’ but they did,” he recalled. Lallemand started his engine and said he wanted to talk with the officers by the shore, but the Coast Guard followed and tried to push him into the U.S., which is what caused him to go overboard. β€œThey’re tying my boat to their boat. They’re not even taking care of me. The third time I went down, coming out with water in my mouth, spitting it out, I said throw me a buoy,” he said. Once on their vessel, he said he was aggressively put in handcuffs. β€œI never saw somebody so angry,” he said. He was then handed over to U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers, who fingerprinted him, put him in a jail cell with his clothes soaking wet, and gave him a β€œdirty” blanket.

A Quebec fisherman who was fishing 15 kilometers north of the US border was essentially kidnapped by US Border Patrol, who capsized his boat and dragged him to an American prison cell.

In any normal time this'd be quite the international incident, y'know?

www.ctvnews.ca/montreal/art...

24.07.2025 15:47 πŸ‘ 7046 πŸ” 3769 πŸ’¬ 167 πŸ“Œ 528