Category: Gopher News

We Broke Them

Seriously, this was the right thing to do until they get this mess figured out.

As I’ve remarked in the past — I’m not the enemy here. We deserve transparent, accurate information so that we can determine for ourselves if the government’s Covid-19 policies are logical.

Saskatchewan has been the worst place in Canada to ride out this pandemic — with the exception of all the other provinces. The Sask Party government deserves credit for realizing after the first lockdown that such policies do incredible harm with very little reward, and for resisting federal pressure to conform. So, that part is good. But I won’t carry water for the Potemkin Passports, not when the data clearly shows that the vaccines do little to slow transmission.

A Miracle Has Happened (Bumped)

Apparently unconvinced by a screenshot, a couple of commentors have demanded I provide “a source”.

Okey Dokey.

Update: This is astonishing. I linked the source page above at 21:06:17 Eastern January 6th. This evening the page screenshotted above has been removed and replaced with charts that don’t mention vaccine status at all. You must download the database for yourself to find the vaccine status breakdowns (which for the past few days are patently ridiculous).

This is about the fourth time that the SaskHealth dashboard has been reconfigured immediately after posts appeared here reporting the vax vs unvax new case statistics – and that’s also patently ridiculous.

Morning Update, from betacamsp:

The Excel data, downloaded this Friday morning, indicates that 847 of 913 cases yesterday were in the vaccinated. I have no faith in the data but that sounds more in line with the neighboring provinces.

Exactly.

Errors happen. But errors shouldn’t be lingering for days on a government website, staffed by people whose job it is to ensure that information is accurate, or if it is in question, that the appropriate disclaimers are front and center.

Yesterday John Gormley, God love him, actually reported to tens of thousands of Saskatchewan listeners — with a straight face — that 99% of new cases were in the unvaccinated, because the SaskHealth dashboard told him so. Words fail.

From the comments;

I just downloaded the CSV files and had a poke at them.

Garbage data. If I presented data and summaries like that to my clients I’d be fired, quickly for incompetence.

Like Nini I just did some basic checksums to see if things literally added up, and they don’t at all. They sure as shit don’t correspond to whatever that graph was presented yesterday for any of the previous dates either. Either the data they used for the graphs is not the same as the data from the spread sheet or I don’t know what. I literally cannot conceive of how they got the information in the graph from the information in the tables. They couldn’t even get a basic summation correct, January 6th it was fluffed up by 8%. spot checking a few other day’s summaries there are similar errors in not even being able to create a summary of just a few rows of data accurately. In fact some days show hundreds of new cases in the one total, 68 new cases in a different total for the same day and ZERO contributing cases for both those totals, so its either 480% over or it’s %cannot calculate% over or it’s all total bullshit made up to fit some kind of curve.

If this is spat out by a program, the programmer should be fired as should the project manager. This is literally grade four math stuff being able to add up 20 lines of 1-3 digit numbers accurately by hand much less using a computer.

I spend endless time telling my children they must be prepared to “Show their work” for their math and science. I’d fail them on the spot for this crap.

Jesus Christ on his Throne, this is fucking bonkers.


Click for full size.

Agriculture Canada Researcher Arrested

What was he up to?

Yantai Gan, whom the Royal Society of Canada said in a Facebook post “invented pulse-based, ‘integrated suite’ of farming technologies,” was arrested by the RCMP in November of 2019 after a 21-month investigation.

Gan, a 65-year-old from Kelowna, B.C., was employed by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada at the time of his arrest. According to the Government of Canada, he was a senior research scientist based in Swift Current.

He was elected to the Royal Society of Canada in 2019.

In a media release, the RCMP said a search warrant was executed at the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s offices in Swift Current on Nov. 19, 2019 after an investigation led by the RCMP’s National Security Enforcement Section (NSES). A search warrant also was executed at a residence in Swift Current that same day.

According to the RCMP website, officers from the NSES and related units “undertake national security criminal investigations into terrorist activities as needed in the antiterrorism provisions of the Criminal Code as well as any occurrence arising out of a threat to the security of Canada, under the Security Offenses Act.”

An initial search uncovers precious little background info about this guy from Kelowna. He’s been charged with fraud and breach of trust.

Professional bio here.

Now Is The Time At SDA When We Synchronize!

620 CKRM, October 12:

“Public Health Inspectors and police, once the Medical Health Officer has signed a form for secure isolation, will be involved in assisting and transporting and moving people into the secure isolation site.”

This site, expected to be ready in the next three weeks, is going to be located at the Saskatchewan Hospital in North Battleford.

They refer to those sent to the secure isolation site as clients, not detainees. However they will be there under a detention order.

CBC News, October 13;

Scott Moe has forgotten that pleasing your enemies does not turn them into friends. (But it can turn your friends into enemies).

Wuhan Flu: Put Your Trust In The Experts

September 20th.

The new certificate with digital QR code supports proof of vaccination at border entry if travelling internationally, and is aligned with work the federal government is undertaking on a national solution.

“This is the next, improved, version of Saskatchewan’s COVID-19 vaccination record,” Health Minister Paul Merriman said in a news release.

September 24th.

QR codes are being temporarily removed from Saskatchewan COVID-19 vaccination records due a privacy breach.

The Government of Saskatchewan said the vaccination records of up to 19 residents have the potential to display another person’s QR code.

Expert: QR codes can be safe for vaccine certificates, if done correctly: expert

Because They Have Phones In Texas

The Sanity Province.

Saskatchewan is planning to have a summer resembling normal with a timeline and benchmarks that eschew the federal government’s plan. […]

Like in other provinces, restrictions have come and gone, but in broad strokes, Saskatchewan has had less stringent public-health restrictions than elsewhere: You’ve been able to get a haircut or a tattoo or go tanning since December, for example, fitness facilities are open and outdoor gatherings of up to 10 people are allowed. Patios and indoor dining are open, including in Regina where regional measures were recently lifted.

And should vaccination rates hit Moe’s threshold, things will continue to open, with Saskatchewanians hanging out with friends and family before the rest of us are allowed a pint on a patio.

*

Trepidation, from the basement of the Star Phoenix — Even though things are clearly getting better, why doesn’t Scott Moe understand we all want to keep living with irrational fear and he needs to keep telling us what to do?

Y2Kyoto: The Province Has A Fever

February 13th;

Broadview, -41.4 (previous record was -37.2 set in 1967)
Coronach, -37.2 (previous record was -33.1 set in 2020)
Elbow, -40.1 (previous record was -33.3 set in 1973)
Hudson Bay, -41.9 (previous record was -40.6 set in 1974)
Indian Head, -41.1 (previous record was -38.9 set in 1906)
Kindersley, – 36.4 (previous record was -34.4 set in 1951)
Last Mountain Lake, -42.5 (previous record was -34.0 set in 1990)
Lucky Lake, -36.3 (previous record was -31.7 set in 1973)
Meadow Lake, -37.6 (previous record was -37.5 set in 2020)
Melfort, -41.7 (previous record was -39.4 set in 1936)
Nipawin, -43.9 (previous record was -42.8 set in 1936)
Rockglen, -32.9 (previous record was -31.2 set in 2020)
Rosetown, -38.1 (previous record was -36.7 set in 1922)
Watrous, -41.5 (previous record was -35.1 set in 2020)
Weyburn, -38.4 (previous record was -33.9 set in 1970)
Wynyard, -39.2 (previous record was -33 set in 2007)
Yorkton, -39.2 (previous record was -35.6 set in 1951)

Survey: For Prairie Ag Only

Thought I’d give this request a boost.

To assist us with the development of data input for the western Canadian component of the North American Global Yield Gap Atlas project (www.yieldgap.org), we are reaching out to producers across the Prairies to confirm that we have the most common crop sequences captured in the model. The Prairies have been divided into unique buffer zones based on weather/climate/soil parameters. The following questions will help us immensely, and your responses will be anonymous other than reflecting crop sequences for a given buffer zone.

He’s especially looking for Saskatchewan data. The rest of you can carry on as you were.

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