Alex Usher

"All wars end in negotiation" - JD Vance

The 82nd Airborne is not equipped to lead a campaign to seize and hold ground objectives. They are a light, rapidly deployable stopgap force meant to clear the way for heavier forces that can. Sending them alone into Iran, without a much larger buildup, would be suicide.

It's the perentage of students graduating from that province between 2010 and 2019 who were still in the province 3 years after graduation

We need onigiri to be better before we need it to be cheaper. The local product is terrible, and our packaging industry is not up to the challenge of proper onigiri wrapping.

Graph is mine, data is from here:

Im not even sure it's levels, tbh. there are way too many people whose jobs is to write briefing notes for ministers.

Well that's one reason I'd like to see actual numbers: not sure the number to be subtracted to one would be equal to the number to be added to the other.

There are a lot of jaw-dropping data points in this graph, but Alberta's contrasting results in Medicine/Dentistry/Optometry on the one hand and Nursing on the other is pretty striking.

Ideally, we could divide this up into "people who spend 95% of their time dealing with other public servants" and "others".

My prior is that we have too much of one, and not enough of the other. Happy to see cutbacks in the former.

North of 49: There’s no such thing as the unknown On Day 4 of his deep dive into Canadian student life, Jim Dickinson meets William Shatner - and unpacks how Canada’s student associations combine grassroots spirit with institutional heft to shape nat...

BTW, did I send you this?

Basically: the name was your idea, the referendum was mine, and lots of people were in on the execution.

Stratford also gave us General Chang!

(and Kirk too, I suppose, since he was Plummer's understudy in Henry V)

That's a great question. Probably? Though I get the impression there is a lot of cosplaying as dumbfucks rather than actual dumbfuckery. Like, there is no equivalent of Hegseth I don't think.

Although, say what you want about the Bush cabinet, they weren't dumbfucks.

That was the reference, yes.

Is it worse when "the best and the brightest" drag the world into a war or when obvious hateful dumbfucks do it?

Higher Education in Bulgaria: Rankings, Reform, and Demographic Pressures | HESA It seems hard to believe sometimes, but after 110 or so episodes of this show, there are still a few countries we haven’t been to. One of them is today’s destination of Bulgaria. It’s not a place whic...

ICYMI: My interview with Georgi Stoytchev of the Open Society Institute in Sofia on Bulgarian Higher Education.

The Fifteen: March 6, 2026 | HESA Gather ‘round, all! This edition, we have absurd policy proposals from Australia and the UK, deceptive military recruitment practices in Russia, a battle over a rectorship in Colombia, and free McDona...

Absurd policy proposals from Australia and the UK, deceptive military recruitment practices in Russia, a battle over a rectorship in Colombia, and free McDonald’s meals for students in Malaysia - all in today's edition of the Fifteen.

BUILD HOUSING YOU UTTER GOON

I know there are a lot of potential signs of the apocalypse about these days, but an Arsenal quadruple plus a Spurs relegation in the same season would be pretty high up on the list.

Great Wolf Lodge debuts Ranch Milkshake topped with carrots, celery and chicken nuggets A ranch milkshake with a bunch of toppings is coming to Great Wolf Lodge.

Great Wolf Lodge debuts Ranch Milkshake topped with carrots, celery and chicken nuggets

Meanwhile on Earth II PM O'Toole is riding high in the polls.

Chart showing in many countries, people see their fellow citizens as morally good.

We asked people around the world to rate the morality and ethics of others in their country.

The U.S. is the only place we surveyed where more adults describe the morality and ethics of others living in the country as bad than good. See our full morality report here: www.pewresearch.org/...

ZERO.

I could omagine Lewis boosting the headline number but in a way that doesn't change the seat count

I don't recall them ever being *that* low.

The reason I should not be a national leader is that I would not be able to stop myself from adding “say thank you” to my list of demands.

"We had no idea the enemy would shoot back"

12 months ago, Justin Trudeau was Prime Minister