That’s Not Our Job

By the way we also need more money.

Blacklocks- Jasper Fire Was ‘Big Concern’

Parks Canada managers four years ago said fire risks at Jasper National Park were a “big concern.” The agency yesterday would not explain why it failed to take all measures needed to save the Town of Jasper from a July 24 wildfire that destroyed 358 buildings.

Parliament in 2021 budgeted $100.6 million in five-year funding for fire preparedness in national parks including $2.2 million a year to combat beetle infestations blamed for killing pine trees. Parks Canada boasted at 2020 environment committee hearings that Jasper National Park was “one of the very few places” where the agency cut trees to reduce fire risk.

Lieberal Recruiting Opportunity

I feel terrible for Vanessa Gilles, and the rest of the Team Canada female soccer players.  None of them did anything wrong but are now being punished for the stupid actions of a few non-player bad actors.

One wonders if leaders of the Liberal Party of Canada are going to seize this opportunity to try to recruit those who did perform the misdeeds.  After all, with no ethics, no sense of morality, and absolutely no conscience, such folks would make perfect Liberal MPs!

Water Carriers

I doubt that you could get a more sycophantic opinion piece than this, but Vanity Fair should at least have the decency to stop pretending that they’re engaging in journalism.

Hollywood went into panic mode over Joe Biden’s candidacy after the presidential debate. Most of that anxiety has now morphed into “unabashed excitement and energy unlike anything I’ve ever seen,” according to Jordan C. Brown, a Hollywood political strategist who served on the Biden campaign’s Entertainment Advisory Council and worked on events for Harris during her Senate and presidential runs. “I think people didn’t realize how worried and hopeless they were until she had this opportunity, and the party united behind her. I’ve just never seen anything like it.”

Even DreamWorks cofounder Jeffrey Katzenberg, a major force in Hollywood political fundraising who stood by Biden in recent weeks, has jumped onboard the USS Kamala. He is now a cochair of Harris’s campaign. “Again and again, she has been underestimated. Again and again, she has triumphed,” Katzenberg wrote of the vice president in a New York Times op-ed. “I couldn’t be more confident that this November will be no different.”

Good Luck With That

David Coletto- Liberals can’t reduce their polling deficit without changing how people feel about Trudeau

Overall, our survey finds that most Canadians have a negative impression of Justin Trudeau and those negative feelings are more intense than they have been at previous points over the past four years.

For some, change is what they want and so their negative emotions towards Trudeau is simply caused by wanting someone else leading the country.

But there is also a personal side to the negativity towards Trudeau. Many believe he lies, breaks promises, is arrogant (that pops pretty clearly), and is incompetent.

I, For One, Welcome Our New Self-Driving Overlords

FT;

The use of computer-generated data to train artificial intelligence models risks causing them to produce nonsensical results, according to new research that highlights looming challenges to the emerging technology.

Leading AI companies, including OpenAI and Microsoft, have tested the use of “synthetic” data — information created by AI systems to then also train large language models (LLMs) — as they reach the limits of human-made material that can improve the cutting-edge technology.

Research published in Nature on Wednesday suggests the use of such data could lead to the rapid degradation of AI models. One trial using synthetic input text about medieval architecture descended into a discussion of jackrabbits after fewer than 10 generations of output.

It’s Not Our Fault

Yes, it’s our responsibility and okay we didn’t do the work, and a third of Jasper burned to the ground. But hey, could’ve been worse.

Blacklocks- Don’t Blame Feds: Guilbeault

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault yesterday said it was “simply not true” that Parks Canada mismanaged fire preparedness at Jasper, Alta. However documents show the agency from 2015 halved the number of controlled burns needed to create firebreaks at Jasper and other parks.

My Debt Engine Is Running Rough

In an economy as utterly dependent on housing as Canada’s this is the kind of news that grabs headlines. Even if the recent interest rate hikes are over and rate cuts continue, servicing the debt burden piled up during the lengthy near-zero era makes a quick recovery impossible.

The number of housing starts in the first half of 2024 has lagged behind the previous year, while June saw a 44-per cent drop year-on-year. At the same time, new home sales — which can predict future home construction — are also falling.

Data from the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) shows that, between January and June, 36,371 new homes were started in areas of Ontario with more than 10,000 residents. Those figures were a 14-per cent decrease from the previous year.

Last month, the CMHC reported particularly dire figures. In June 2023, 10,114 new homes were started in Ontario, while this year that plummeted to 5,681.

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