It’s not just Covid that America needs to mourn. Psychologically Covid is the symptom not the disease. The US has been able to psychologically paper-over it’s faults and inequities by being the best and the biggest. That Century is now over. How do all those social and economic faults feel...

I was just watching the frontline decision 2020 documentary. The idea I liked is how Biden unintentionally crafted a niche as a symbol of and someone sought after to deal with grief. I think that makes a 2020 Biden presidency not only serendipitous but necessary. What the US needs right now...

I think immunity is one of the big questions. The end point to the pandemic seems more-and-more like an announcement on the battleship and a gradual return to normal as people just regain their confidence to go about their business. Covid-19 just keeps circulating for decades and becomes...

Regarding Northern Light’s list: There used to be a mink kind of thing living under the bridge on the Spit. A Barred Owl used to frequent Algonquin Island a few years back. I I oddly (?) find reptiles much more abundant in cottage country than here in the City. A Northern Water Snake was...

Europe is ahead of us so the important takeaways are: 1) We are not going to drive numbers down like the summer moving forward. Not happening so forget about it 2) We need to compare the data between the first and second waves to prepare for the third wave (assuming the second wave ever ends...

Looking at peer nations I think we’ll be lucky to see a gradual increase in daily case count. My fear is this will go parabolic as it is in countries doing as much and more than we are: -Likely outcome is this goes parabolic in the first week or two of november. Canada averages over 10,000...

Apparently 4.6 million people have entered Canada since the march pandemic “lockdown”. That’s about 22,000 people per day. A comment previously regarding the Australian experience brought up the topic of geographic isolation. Canada, while somewhat geographically isolated has neither closed...

Our daycare had rigid guidelines at the start of September: Temperature checks, no symptoms without a covid test etc. They have already devolved to nothing except a daily form you need to submit, basically a declaration that your kid has no symptoms and you checked their temperature. This is...

It's all of us. Two middle-age ladies discussing in my lane how annoying it is you can't get a seat in the Starbucks. No masks. One said she's meeting her friend for a coffee. The other lady offers a solution that there's a place up the street that will let you sit inside. A very harmless...

3D I think we'll get there in terms of connecting some of these nodes but Toronto is characterized by a very tortuous route to the obvious. I think the best example characterizing how planning works in this City region with respect to nodes is Mississauga City Centre. Mississauga City Centre...

Sorry to say but that house above is in my opinion so massively inferior to the original houses. Someone would have to explain to me what the point of it is?

I wouldn’t downplay the importance of an annual 30% effective vaccine. That would still represent an effective weapon in this fight. Remember we are already well past the point of containment globally. Any hard fought relief from the pandemic locally is only a temporary win. The long-term...

I wonder what people’s take is on these developments? While decentralization is desirable not least from an affordability perspective (by far the primary concern for most people I would think) I think in large part these are ill conceived developments. They are generally dense and yet highly...

https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.5763762 An article about the Federal government developing of small-scale nuclear reactors. If Canada had real foresight and a proactive culture we should have not been thinking about researching this now, we should have already had these operating in the field. I...

This might sound cynical but the funny part of this discussion is the idea that the design process could bring about an unbiased evaluation of the options presented. A fundamental principle of engineering is: in order to find the solution you need to know the solution. In management parlance...

I don’t deal with high rise buildings but various materials have to conform to flame spread and flame development ratings that are dependent on the building classification. These could be limiting factors in your choice of a code compliant solution. While steel studs are annoying in many ways...

Just like lockdown won’t be straightforward, vaccination won’t be straightforward nor will the aftermath. That’s why I was speculating that we may still see waves of infection after mass vaccination has begun. Hospitals will still be dealing with this likely for decades to come; however, it...

I came across a visualization at the visualcapitalist.com website that showed the history of most visited websites on the internet. Funny enough (assuming you find the subject funny) Montreal-based pornhub overtook Amazon in 2018 to become the 11th most-visited-site in the world. We don’t talk...

Earlier in the thread there was discussion of private testing. I’m not advocating for that, the solution should have been that the government recognize it needed the 80,000 or so test capacity for this fall; however, practically since I pay $140 a day in daycare it would make sense for me to...

If it wasn’t serious it would be hilarious watching the bureaucrats and politicians squirm around trying to say something while saying nothing. Here’s the kind of messaging the public needs in Toronto: Cancel all Thanksgiving festivities. Under no circumstances should people in Toronto meet...