I am supportive of people’s right to live with dignity and respect, and I agree that asking in front of a waiting room is undesirable (I have had that same thought in other waiting rooms, too), but I feel like a medical analysis setting is one in which biology (sex) actually does take precedence over identity (gender), because that has implications what and how things are analyzed.

That said, transgender persons taking hormones will have much greater variance in ranges of everything. I think it’s sensible to have additional gender markers in addition to sex.

Yes, I am in Ontario. Hmm, I should just go somewhere else to get the Covid shot. Thanks.

I went to my local pharmacy and asked for both, but the pharmacist would only give me the flu shot. He said I was too young to need the Covid shot… Which he gave me last year.

I think it’s safe to say the people in charge appreciated the idea of diversity but had no actual clue. Harry Kim was supposedly Chinese, till Garret Wang told them Kim is Korean surname.

Okay, I know you said not touristy stuff, but I have to say I absolutely love Pocket Planet (formerly known as Little Canada). I suspect it’s more fun if you’ve done at least some travel around the country’s larger cities, so you can feel nostalgic about your past travels, but it’s just super cool to see how the model makers have made things run/work. Trains and cars, of course, but things like the tide going in and out, the Skydome opening and closing. And maybe you’d love it if you want to travel across Canada and havent had the opportunity to yet.

… Is Canada getting the Brexit that was promised but never materialized?

She was a US PR who had been willingly living in the US for 14 years. Her Canadian citizenship is only an incidental fact that has no relation to the story; she could have been from anywhere. This was not a political move against Canada the way Spavor and Kovrig were. It was very unfortunate, and we should be sad about her death, and sad about the state of the US, but this is not the doing of any party, government, policy, or law in Canada. This was done solely by the US. They created this situation, they pushed her to her death. If you can’t see that, you’re either incredibly disingenuous or stupid.

I don’t see why LPC feds should care? I mean, beyond basic human decency. This is US policies and actions applied to US PRs. It had nothing to do with Canada or Canadian laws. Why don’t you leave the blame where it rightly lies, with the US and its unconstitutional gulag?

How we got here is the world kinda sucks right now, and people want to blame the most convenient person, even if a lot of things are not municipal issues. It’s like the idiots who went to protest provincial health care measures at Parliament.

Well, as I said, I’m not actually interested in getting the worker in trouble. The employer, however, is taking advantage of multiple refugee and immigrant “employees” in various ways, this the most provable. I put employee in quotes because the others are being (under) paid by irregular means; meanwhile, the employer siphons money for their own self.

This happened to a young man I knew who was trying to get into HVAC. He had to start all over again and find someone new who would actually sign his hours. He eventually did, but I could just add easily imagine if it didn’t happen.

I have an American friend who is terminally ill, and it’s possible I may never see them again 😞

The US Coast Guard has stopped their search. What a tragedy.

People may call you a racist, mysogynist, homophobe, and/or transphobe if you act like a racist, mysogynist, homophobe, and/or transphobe.

The better question is why shouldn’t they? Are prisoners not human?

I had the good fortune of meeting the owner and some of the staff recently (not as a patient). They are very kind, caring people. They didn’t use the word “family”, but they sure felt like one, with the way they talked with and about each other. They’re not a very big outfit, with just a handful of planes. I can’t imagine the devastation they must be going through.

The semi-vertical ones help compared to a standard (horizontal) mouse, but as someone who had a lot of pain, they were not enough for me. For example, I had the Microsoft sculpt mouse, which came with their split keyboard (the main reason I bought it) and still experienced pain. Then I went more vertical to the Logitech Lift which was better, but did not eliminate the pain entirely. Finally, I now use the Evoluent Vertical mouse and now no longer experience pain in my mousing hand.

The only drawback is when I used a standard mouse (totally horizontal), I used to switch hands and use it ambidextrously. Now I obviously can’t switch hands with these mice.

I think for someone who doesn’t experience persistent pain, a semi-vertical mouse may be well enough.

You realize that you’re talking about “buying Canadian”, but dissatisfied that the Canadian broadcaster doesn’t have American shows, yes?

This was the big discussion back when I still worked in insurance while years ago. The discussion was that insurance companies would not accept liability for the owners of self-driving cars because its not the driver creating the risk, but the car company and its programmers, but that car producers would have to insure their own vehicles. The discussion was how the industry will have to adapt to survive this change.

Current models of insurance (and prices) is based on statistics, including the driver’s age, gender, location, and characteristics of the vehicle (make, model, age). Some companies give discounts if you are willing to give them telemetry on your driving habits. (Personally, I’m not willing, but at least that’s based on you individually rather than a statistical average version of you. )

Those all to out the window when the car is self-driving. Driving behaviour is determined by the competence of the programmers who programed the car, which is entirely opaque to the public and insurers. An update can totally change the driving behaviour anytime, in ways no one can know. That is not an acceptable risk to a risk-calculating industry.

When I was still around the industry, the current issue was exactly when did policy coverage start and stop for ride share drivers (the moment they accept a ride in an app or when a passenger enters the vehicle?). I have not seen a policy for a vehicle that has some autonomous mode, but I would imagine that, in these years since, wordings have been added that state a policy does not cover the owner when FSD is engaged. But I also haven’t seen that car companies are actually offering insurance either.

So, owner or car company? Maybe both, but there’s a reason that Tesla specifically states that drivers have to maintain control of the vehicle, for exactly this reason: to disclaim responsibility.

Its a lot of promises of intentions without a lot of specifics. The one that does look more solid is the invitation to the PM to their summits. I assume it means no vote, but giving Canada a presence is a good signal to start, anyway.