On the DEWLine 2.0: Dwight Williams

COVID-19 News/Resources: MoriartyLab

Mon, 21 Oct 2024 16:23:36 GMT

I believe that one of the more trustworthy Canadian info sources online at the moment re: COVID-19 is Tara Moriarty. Her main social media presence is still the Hellbirdsite, although she does maintain a Mastodon/Fediverse account as well.

https://x.com/MoriartyLab

https://mastodon.social/@MoriartyLab@med-mastodon.com

Excuse me while I politely ask her to resume cross-posting to the latter...

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Exoplanet Count

Fri, 15 Mar 2024 11:25:28 GMT

As of this date?

NASA Exoplanet Archive: 5,599
Exoplanet.eu: 5,649

I suspect that both services will break the six-thousand mark this year. Just not sure of exactly when that will happen for each of them.

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Population Trends: Perception Vs. Probability

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 13:47:38 GMT

Yes, we're hitting the eight-billion mark in living humans this week. When I was starting grade school, I think we were at four billion.

Now, though, we have some debate over how difficult things are expected to become, how quickly, and in what ways exactly.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/8-billion-global-population-1.6646018

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News: Not-so-random stuff towards the end of October 2022

Thu, 27 Oct 2022 13:18:53 GMT

1. Toronto Star - They made doors, gum and jerry cans. Ontario’s ‘essential’ workers in manufacturing accounted for more workplace COVID deaths than any other sector — even health care

2. The Register - Pro-China crew ramps up disinfo ahead of US midterms. Not that anyone's falling for it (Maybe that should be "pro-Xi Regime"?)

3. CBC News Ottawa + Toronto - Triplexes are coming to your neighbourhood, province (of Ontario) says

4. CBC News Montréal - Omicron subvariants may be spooky, but Quebec isn't restricting Halloween parties

5. CBC Ottawa - Canada's capital home to 3rd-largest Black, Arab populations in Canada: Statistics Canada - Ottawa population surpassed one million between 2016 and 2021

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Job Search: Spreadsheet Milestone

Wed, 19 Oct 2022 21:51:06 GMT

My current job search diary, begun on 14 March of this year, is now at 201 pages, and 5003 entries typed in Helvetica Neue 10 point.

I don't know how much of this is because of the Pandemic, how much is psychological self-sabotage, how much is just bad timing or whatever else. But here I am.

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Municipal Elections: Ontario 2022 - Part 2

Mon, 12 Sep 2022 21:33:36 GMT

Okay. So I participated in this workshop last week on the art of getting out the vote...in general, for all the candidates. In my previous entry here, I made it clear once again that I still do have Standards as to what sorts of people ought to be winning these elections. I want a city that's safer for everyone living here, save for maybe out-and-out fascist-bigot people. (If they're looking to put such mindsets permanently aside, good. Welcome (back) to the club!)

Anyway. Looking at this item on percentage of those eligible to vote who actually "showed up" last time around in Toronto:

http://spacing.ca/toronto/2022/09/12/election-mapping-municipal-election-voter-turnout/

I am, of course, more focused on Ottawa here, as this is where I live. So, where do I find the relevant stats for my city?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Ottawa_municipal_election

(I would like to nail down the sources for that Wikipedia article, preferably soon.)

According to which, 42.55 % of those then eligible to vote in Ottawa actually did vote. Which was an improvement over 2014's turnout of 39.92 %.

So that was good. We want to get that back up above 2010's turnout of 42 %, though, right?

There were videos I got to look at, some of which I hope to share in the next installment...

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Politics: Ontario Election 2022 - The Turnout That Wasn't

Sat, 04 Jun 2022 12:16:48 GMT

This is terrifying to my brain to read:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/lowest-voter-turnout-ontario-history-elections-1.6476344

Yes, there's still ballot-counting to be done as of today. Even so, the drop in turnout is a horrible development. I'd been hoping over this past decade that people were still heeding advice (*) from the likes of Rick Mercer to show up in greater numbers with each election held and completed.

And we've got municipal elections in October in Ontario, right?

(*) - Yes, the video is from 2011, and the Rant is focused on people aged between 18 and 25, and the advice still holds for the wider public.

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Social Media: the Consequences of Elon Musk for Twitter

Mon, 25 Apr 2022 21:38:56 GMT

As of this moment, I have 384 Twitter "followers". I expect that to drop by this time tomorrow.

Because Elon Musk.

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A Quick Job Search Note

Mon, 11 Apr 2022 16:16:16 GMT

About my job search diary:

25 pages thus far as of noon today on the Numbers spreadsheet I've set up for it.
Four columns: date; employer contacted/resource used; intended job if specific; activity undertaken and result if confirmed.
623 entries, and yes, I count Dreamwidth these days as a "networking + research" activity. I'm sure the Conservatives will change the rules to disallow that for (un)employment insurance purposes if they get to form government again.
Four weeks, going on five.

So there's that.

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Work: Tracking Canadian Labour Disputes

Mon, 22 Nov 2021 18:41:36 GMT

Is there a website somewhere that keeps track of labour disputes across Canada?

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Emergencies and Polarization

Mon, 15 Nov 2021 02:53:22 GMT

A friend pointed out this article in The Daily Beast tonight.

Long story short, it's about concerns about political polarisation as an addictive force getting in the way of properly dealing with the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Climate Emergency.

I say that addiction is being actively encouraged and enforced by elements of the new fascist international in order to entrench their preferred people in power in dozens of nations across the planet. Solving either crisis properly means throwing away their current "advantages" against human civilization.

Anyway, it may be that the sabotage-by-addiction hasn't fully taken hold, not in the degree intended yet. Pointing to evidence of that...here's the Yale map the article talks about:

https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/visualizations-data/ycom-us/

And I have a problem with this assertion by Thor Benson: "But those initiatives won’t go anywhere if the next president simply reverses them like the previous one did—and they will have no qualms with doing so if half the country gives their consent."

Half the country? (In this case, the United States.)

All the Wrong People need is 25-30 % of their country to actively go along and to keep at least half the total population from showing up for any side(s). That much, I'd already seen during the Stephen Harper years here in Canada. And the Republicans seem all too keen to keep taking advice from Harper in his current International Democrat Union chairmanship role.

(I do wonder what he really thinks of Trump: useful idiot, or someone more dangerous than planned?)

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Achievements of the Day - 1 October 2021

Fri, 01 Oct 2021 17:23:05 GMT

- Back to the normal job search practices this morning.

- Successfully postponed the CPAP machine swap-and-payment date to next Tuesday in anticipation of finances falling together properly for that occasion.

- Continuing to watch lectures from Typewknd participants on YouTube. I am nerding out about type design this weekend.

- Tentatively scheduled to attend the monument installation for my late friend from Pen and Paper Workshop, Naomi Wilanski this Sunday morning upcoming.

- Missed today's City Planning Committee meeting being broadcast via YouTube.

- Other stuff to be added.

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Job Search: Statistics as of Mid-July 2021

Wed, 21 Jul 2021 14:31:01 GMT

Noting that my job search diary for 2021 has now reached 3700+ entries covering 150 pages and six and a half months. For some reason of statistics, that seems to matter right now.

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Canadian Census 2021

Mon, 07 Jun 2021 23:31:27 GMT

I just filled out the form for my household. We drew the short form this time out. I'm mildly disappointed about that. Mainly, though, I'm satisfied that it's done now.

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Exoplanets: A LIttle Statistics from CalTech?

Thu, 03 Jun 2021 03:04:46 GMT

More in space exploration.

https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/giant-planets-found-in-the-stellar-suburbs

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Pandemic: One More Bit of Progress

Fri, 28 May 2021 23:14:38 GMT

According to covidvax.live, we might get to 5 % of Canadians fully vaccinated as of tonight. I figured it would take at least one, maybe two more days for that.

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Health: Vaccination Note

Fri, 09 Apr 2021 13:27:34 GMT

As of this posting, per covidvax-dot-live's Canadian stats page, Canada is now at 2.04 % of our population being fully vaccinated. At this pace, we'd be at 70 % by the end of November.

Continuing to keep watch, of course...

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Pandemic Stats: How Seriously Do We Take Them?

Tue, 23 Mar 2021 20:41:36 GMT

These numbers, specifically:

https://covidvax.live/location/can

Worried Canadians *points to self* need to know.

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CULLING: Inventory-Ware Question

Sat, 07 Nov 2020 03:32:51 GMT

Do any of you here reading this account use any of the software sold by this outfit? Asking for myself, because looking for alternatives to Delicious Library because Culling Project.

If you have other suggestions for alternatives in inventory-ware, please let me know.

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Not GDP...?

Fri, 07 Aug 2020 21:33:12 GMT

GDP might be the wrong thing to watch?

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/gdp-is-the-wrong-tool-for-measuring-what-matters/

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ECOLOGY/INDUSTRY: Some Positive Trending?

Mon, 03 Aug 2020 01:31:45 GMT

It's not fast enough, not yet. But it's more than we had this time last year, right?

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/aug/03/more-coal-power-generation-closed-than-opened-around-the-world-this-year-research-finds

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Buried News Ledes at Reuters

Mon, 30 Mar 2020 13:45:45 GMT

We may have another good-news lede buried amidst these charts at Reuters. When you get to the "Reported Cases Globally" chart, click on the "Daily cases" button. Making progress, we hope, and more work to be done as well, yes.

https://graphics.reuters.com/CHINA-HEALTH-MAP/0100B59S39E/index.html

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Tue, 17 Mar 2020 17:19:34 GMT

US Census 2020 v COVID-19 as detailed by CityLab:

https://www.citylab.com/equity/2020/03/coronavirus-census-bureau-san-francisco-pandemic-planning/607246/

Ontario stops evictions for the duration of the pandemic:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-puts-brakes-on-new-eviction-orders-postpones-ones-in-the-works-because-of-covid-19-1.5499926

Financial supports for Canadian citizens and businesses expected:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-coronavirus-financial-supports-1.5500045

Mental health, as discussed on the radio at CBC Kitchener-Waterloo:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/maintaining-mental-health-amid-the-spread-of-covid-19-1.5500074

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MAPS: MapLoco

Tue, 10 Mar 2020 17:31:31 GMT

Okay, so I've set up a MapLoco device (?) on my account's profile page. Probably, I should have set it up on the front page of my Dreamwidth blog, but what's done is done. More on other topics later in the day...

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MapLoco Question

Mon, 09 Mar 2020 02:23:19 GMT

Once upon a time, back in the LJ years, I decided to try to give myself some idea of where visitors to my weblog were visiting from. Something like MapLoco or one of its competitors. I remember dropping that from my profile page some years later, but not the reason(s) why. Wondering if I should resume that habit, and why or why not.

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