I will always remember him for the purchase of a pipeline to hell, if that counts.

Also for not making a stronger effort to replace our first past the post voting system during what looks to have been a narrow window of opportunity, but that might just be me.

Morons is being too nice.

Our annual rebate for a rural household of 2 adults is about $1000. That doesn't sound like much, but that represents 4% of our total pre-tax income from all sources.

Edit: we're retired, BTW.

This, right here, is our fundamental problem. The idea that everything and everyone has to be enclosed and developed or otherwise conform to some narrow master plan is behind everything from loss of access to public lands to colonialism and beyond.

If the land supported several hundred thousand people there, then it was obviously providing what the people needed and there had to be both systems of governance and economic systems. The fact that they did not conform to the ideals of someone from outside does not change those simple facts.

Going further back, I remember when that watts per square metre (the 2200 in your weather report) was introduced as a replacement for whatever windchill calculations they were using before.

One thing many people I know get wrong about windchill is the effect on needing to plug in a vehicle's block heater. If you normally are good down to -20C on a calm day, you'll also be good down to -20C on a windy day, despite windchill being far below -20. The engine will cool faster, not farther.

No matter how fast the engine cools off, it still won't get any colder than the actual air temperature. Of course, that also means that if you are good for 4 hours at -20C on a calm day, starting with a hot engine, then adding wind means you might only be good for 2-3 hours.

I've managed to learn that even without taking classes. Yet here we are with people supposedly so much brighter than my high-school grad ass who can't or won't figure it out. That's fine on the surface of it, nobody knows everything. But the people in government who have the responsibility to manage the country to the benefit of the population have no excuse for why they don't have the basics figured out.

Depending on where you drive and the current state of the streets, old rails occasionally show through pavement in Saskatoon. Ave H and 20th Street is one location that comes to mind from my days driving truck in the 1980s and early 90s.

In the late 60s, I rode the electric buses that replaced the trolleys. Then those buses were sold to Vancouver, where I got a chance to ride them again in 1986.

Okay, now I better understand your argument. I was ready to just dismiss you as a crank.

I agree with you that governments should not be in the death business. But they already are, in a sense, in their legislation of things like murder, negligence causing death, etc.

I think that proper legislation would allow for someone to help me carry out my wishes in dignified ways that are less traumatic to those I leave behind. Obviously, that means regulation to ensure that nobody is imposing their will on mine.

At the very least, I don't want anyone charged with negligence just because they didn't stop me from taking what turns out to be my final swim.

"Hey, you know those rules designed to protect victims and those we are charged with supervising and protecting? Why don't we use those to punish them and protect ourselves?"

Freemasonry is at the heart of some OG conspiracy theories , dating back to at least the 1700s.

I guess it's really a criticism that can be applied to most parties. To a certain extent, it's understandable, because you can't really implement policies if you never hold power. Still, I'd rather be arguing over the best ways to handle important issues than trying to figure out who's tweaking my emotions for their own gain.

As a parent, I just have to say parents do a really shitty job of educating their kids. Me included. If I knew twice what I know now, I would have still been woefully underqualified to turn an infant into a healthy adult, prepared to take on the challenges of life without being a net drain on society. Thank goodness there was half decent schooling available.

School is the only thing that prevents most kids from growing up to be the kinds of adults we hate dealing with. The less control that parents and politicians have over curriculum, the better.

Around here (rural southern Saskatchewan), imperial still has a stronghold because of our roads, farming, and other factors. Our roads are laid out on a 1 mile grid (some places it's 2 miles north-south) and a square mile is 1 section of land (640 acres).

Even the kids who've never learned any imperial measures still use at least miles for distance when driving the grids. (And that's what we call them: grid roads, not gravel roads or any other designation.) Even equipment without odometers can follow a set of directions like "4 miles north and 3 miles west" because you just count intersections.

Even our legal land locations are given using these ancient units. So I live at NW 19-20-10 W3 and every emergency service and business who needs to knows how to find me.

Fun fact: there are very few flat-earthers around here because of something called a "correction line." The square grid doesn't fit the curved surface, so the roads that (approximately) follow the meridians (lines of longitude) need to be offset every so often to keep them parallel. The roads that intersect those offsets are called "correction line roads" and are used as landmarks when giving directions.

I don't know about pool temperature, but water temperature in the lake and indoor temperature are imperial with outdoor temperature in Celsius. Usually. :)