Category: Little Known Facts

Recurring Urges

On prison and its occupants:

In short, before ending up in prison, the vast majority of the perpetrators, the supposedly downtrodden and marginalised, have at least five prior arrests, with almost half having 10 or more, and one in seven, 20 or more. At which point, the phrase that comes to mind is the nature of the beast.

Other phrases may conceivably occur to readers.

Those with a taste for grim humour are steered towards this quite strong indication of how a crime rate can improve when just three burglars – with over 200 convictions between them – flee the police in a stolen car before colliding with something solid and ceasing to be.

An illustration, one of many, of how a very large fraction of crime could be prevented by dealing decisively with a surprisingly small number of persistent offenders.

Oh, there’s more.

The Science Is Settled?

I’ve always been skeptical of the disease model of addiction, and the treatment industry that flows from that theory. Disagreements of a fundamental nature in the scientific community on a host of issues are remarkably common, contrary to what the mainstream media would like you to think.

Smith was steadfast in her belief that her actions were volitional from the start. Her drug use and crimes were not the products of an immoral character or a faulty brain incapable of change, but rather of an environment where heroin was accessible and desirable. This outlook determined her experiences in prison and beyond, ultimately leading her to dedicate her life to challenging predominant medical models of addiction with her research. Today, she is an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioural sciences at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.

 

Supply Mismanagement

Even for the CBC, I have to admit that they explain the supply mismanagement situation pretty decently, particularly regarding the troublesome import quota issue. So while it is possible for American dairy products to get into Canada tariff free, importers first have to convince Canadian processors to allocate production space to them. I’d hazard a guess that they would have to pay for that space, which is why it doesn’t happen very often. Overall production quantities are ultimately limited by the intricate Canadian dairy pricing mechanism; in other words, consumers must be prevented from getting a bargain.

CUSMA sets import quotas for 14 categories of dairy products. That allows an annual volume of each category to enter Canada tariff-free, and any imports exceeding the quota would get hit with sky-high tariffs of 200 per cent or more.

Much of the quota volume is allocated to major Canadian-owned dairy processing companies such as Saputo and Agropur. Industry analysts on both sides of the border say such companies have little incentive to import U.S. products that would compete with their own.

Juxtapose!

Tristin Hopper- From killings to rape, the heinous crimes that could get you less jail time than a Freedom Convoy organizer

It’s certainly the case that you can do an awful lot of heinous things in Canada before a prosecutor would ever think of asking for seven years. Below, a not-at-all comprehensive list of things you can do in Canada, and have the Crown seek a lighter sentence than the one they’re seeking for the organizers of the Freedom Convoy.

Has AI Been Overhyped?

Turns out that AI may not be the replacement to mankind that we’ve been told it is:

The buzz about AI coding tools is unrelenting. To listen to the reports, startups are launching with tiny engineering teams, non-programmers are “vibe-coding” entire apps, and the job market for entry-level programmers is crashing. But according to a METR experiment conducted in the spring of 2025, there’s at least one cohort that AI tools still aren’t serving.

METR performed a rigorous study (blog post, full paper) to measure the productivity gain provided by AI tools for experienced developers working on mature projects. The results are surprising everyone: a 19 percent decrease in productivity. Even the study participants themselves were surprised: they estimated that AI had increased their productivity by 20 percent. If you take away just one thing from this study, it should probably be this: when people report that AI has accelerated their work, they might be wrong!

Que The Music From Jaws

Tasha Kheiriddin- Carney will have no choice but to kill supply management

If Carney is serious about leading this country and these talks, he must put the national interest ahead of political orthodoxy. As this weekend showed, Trump will not hesitate to call Canada’s bluff. The Americans want the big cheese — and they’ll hold everything else hostage until they get it.

Macdonald Laurier Institute- Quebec’s dairy farmers are blocking free trade in Canada

There are just over 4,200 dairy operations in Quebec out of 9,400 nationally. The objectives of supply management focus on protecting these 4,200 operations at the cost of the other 190,000 Canadian farmers, as well as Canada’s 40 million citizens.

The Visa Account Updater

News you can use.

In December, I drove to Pennsylvania. I had to use the toll road that was unmanned at the time. There was no way for me to pay, so I was expecting a letter in the mail at some point later per the sign that they had put up. They clearly screen license plates and this is how they get the address.

So, when in February, I got a text message about toll violations hit my phone – – You see where this is going, right? – – I stupidly gave out my credit card number. And… within an instant regretted it. How could I think they would be able to contact me directly? I had been driving a company car. They would have contacted my company and my company would have contacted me.

I immediately closed my card and requested a new one. I am financially savvy after all. So I thought.

For about two months, absolutely nothing happened. So, I thought I did the correct thing.

Then, three fraudulent charges hit.

The Future of War

Real Reporter discusses how the Russians are catching up in drone technology, which possibly explains why Putin seems disinterested in peace talks.

“Today’s guest is Serge a Russian engineer and entrepreneur developing military drones for the Russian army. At the start of the war Russia was embarrassingly behind in drone warfare but as the battlefield evolved private startups like Serge stepped in to help Moscow catch up. Now Russia is closing the gap with Ukraine not just in the number of drones but in their quality and tactical innovation. What makes this conversation stand out is Serge’s perspective. He’s not part of the military which gives him a rare level of freedom to speak openly. His insights into modern and future drone warfare are sharp and at times surprisingly candid.”

Hat Tip: Neil

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