Canada has some of the worst mobile phone service / costs in the world.
And I hate mobile phones at any price.
SOMEHOW I ended up paying Bell Canada $80 / month.
I’d only gone with Bell because they supposedly had the best coverage on one part of Vancouver Island. (It seemed just as crappy as the rest.). AND for their 30 day holiday add-on plans.
Bell dropped the 30 day plans in 2023, alongside the other major carriers.
WhistleOut recommended Public and Freedom Mobile as the best options for Canadians who want combined Canada + USA coverage. My bill went to $36.70 /month. Pay as I go. Cancel anytime.
No surprise ➙ once I switched I got a phone call from Bell offering me something for $40 / month. No USA coverage.
BUT he has a lot of books. They’ve sold more than 425 million copies. And he’s helped thousands of people earn a living through the book industry.
Not to mention the dozens of author’s he’s promoted by co-authoring.
James Patterson is one of the good guys.
He calls himself a left-leaning political independent — but is disgusted with his neighbour, 4-time-loser Trump.
His 2024 nonfiction title, The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians takes us inside the lives, and livelihoods, of the everyday heroes surrounding us in the literary trenches: booksellers and librarians.
In a collection of profiles that includes professionals of all types, from school librarians to independent booksellers to big box chain employees, Patterson and his co-author, Matt Eversmann, delve into how these reading gurus inspire young and old every day.
Publisher’s Weekly review – James Patterson’s ‘The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians’
Patterson has donated millions of dollars in grants and scholarship to various universities, teachers’ colleges, independent bookstores, school libraries, and college students to promote literacy.
In 2013, Patterson took out ads titled “Who Will Save Our Books? Our Bookstores? Our Libraries?” in Publishers Weekly and The New York Times Book Review, which employed the text “If there are no bookstores, no libraries, no serious publishers with passionate, dedicated, idealistic editors, what will happen to our literature? Who will discover and mentor new writers? Who will publish our important books? What will happen if there are no more books like these?”
I’ve always felt Canada is one of the best nations in handling immigration.
We welcome those who can fill necessary jobs.
The USA still uses a lottery. And mostly fills their quota with families.
Click PLAY or watch part 3 on YouTube. Episode 582 — Why Is Everyone Moving to Canada?
Canada recently reduced their immigration target numbers. Not good for the economy. But there simply isn’t enough affordable accommodation for new citizens or foreign students.
Finally, the ReTrumplican GOP in 2024 is anti-immigrant. The opposite of Ronald Reagan.
Continental Drift and Cloudsplitter were finalists for the 1986 and 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction respectively …
I only knew the name as the author of The Sweet Hereafter (1991).
American Spirits (2024) is his last publication.
Grim but compelling narratives from this fine writer.
Three stories unearth the bitterness and violence seething in a working-class American town.
These long narratives by the late Banks are all set in the northern New York village of Sam Dent that featured in The Sweet Hereafter (1991). But where that story dealt with a tragedy that affected the whole town, these explore the welter of pain that can afflict a single house. …
Recall one of Trump’s worst appointees — billionaire donor Betsy DeVos?
She wanted to disband public schools, giving those tax dollars to parents to spend on whatever they want ➙ school choice, school voucher programs, or charter schools, for example.
Those are programs used mostly by the rich.
IF you want to send your children to Muslim school, Jewish school, Christian school, or SPORT school — great! So long as they meet minimum standards, your child should be credentialed.
That decided … should the taxpayer subsidize your special education?
My short answer is NO.
Like health care, IF you want special treatment, pay for it yourself.
Government should ensure that BASIC education and health care are made available to EVERYONE.
PUBLIC SCHOOLS and PUBLIC HEALTH CARE.
If you choose to have the Mayo Clinic treat you for cancer, pay for it yourself.
That’s my short answer.
My longer answer is that governments with plenty of money should be allowed to subsidize special education IF it doesn’t lower the quality of public school.
The best discussion I’ve heard on this was on my favourite PODCAST ➙ ON THE MEDIA.
As an example, here’s the GOP nominee for the top job running public schools in North Carolina. An $11 billion budget.
In the past she’s called for executing top Democrats. Endorsed QAnon and other conspiracy theories. Anti-Muslim. Anti-LBGTQ.
She marched for Trump on Jan. 6th.
Michele Morrow is about as rightwing kooky as they get.
No educational experience other than homeschooling her own kids.
The party of family values. The Republican nominee to oversee all public schools in North Carolina wants to execute Democrats, promotes QAnon, and is a conspiracy theorist. (Video: CNN) pic.twitter.com/tsx4vMMjyz
… “Sunk cost” is about the past — it’s the time, or money, or sweat equity that you’ve put into something, which makes it hard to abandon.
“Opportunity cost” is about the future. It means that for every hour or dollar you spend on one thing, you’re giving up the opportunity to spend that hour or dollar on something else — something that might make your life better. If only you weren’t so worried about the sunk cost.
In 2009, I was recruited for one of the most prestigious and cool appointments in American journalism: to serve a nine-year term on the Pulitzer Prize Board.
Three years later, I quit. …
So, how do we know when to quit? Looking back over my decades of best quits, here’s how you know. If the position is…
Canada’s population grew by 1.2 million in 2023, the highest ever annual increase. And there are not enough homes for those kind of numbers — even if they could afford them.
Multiple approaches are needed to increase housing supply, including turning unused office spaces into apartments and condos.
Short term ➙ easiest is to provide free, safe temporary accommodation for anyone.
Nobody wants people living illegally or legally in tents nearby. THEREFORE the goal should be to be to offer a better alternative, indoor or outdoor. I’d call it a municipal FREE CAMPGROUND.
Volunteer organizations could provide meals and medical advice. Help folks try to get out.
I made this image with Microsoft Creator AI.
Long term ➙ we need more “Housing First” initiatives.
Rather than moving homeless individuals through different “levels” of housing, whereby each level moves them closer to “independent housing” (for example: from the streets to a public shelter, and from a public shelter to a transitional housing program, and from there to their own apartment or house in the community), Housing First moves the homeless individual or household immediately from the streets or homeless shelters into their own accommodation. …
… housing is a basic human right, and so should not be denied to anyone, even if they are abusing alcohol or other substances. The Housing First model, thus, is philosophically in contrast to models that require the homeless to abjure substance-abuse and seek treatment in exchange for housing.
Finland and Denmark are the only European Union countries where homelessness is currently falling. …
Since its launch in 2008, the number of homeless people in Finland has decreased by roughly 30%, and the number of long-term homeless people has fallen by more than 35%.
“Sleeping rough”, the practice of sleeping outside, has been largely eradicated in Helsinki, where only one 50-bed night shelter remains. …
