Alarmed
Posted on October 25th, 2015 – 1 CommentI had trouble finding a title for this post but I was left with a lingering feeling. Perhaps that was the idea.
Posts Tagged ‘ blog ’
It doesn’t get any lower than this
Posted on October 25th, 2015 – Be the first to commentIn fairness, they don’t offer proofreading services…
Cardcapades
Posted on October 23rd, 2015 – Be the first to commentFrom today’s Star:
Random and arbitrary carding by police forces across Ontario will be illegal by the end of fall.
Yasir Naqvi, minister of community safety and correctional services, made the announcement during a debate Thursday where MPPs from across the province spoke out against carding. At the time they were considering a private member’s motion from an NDP MPP to ban random and arbitrary carding, also known as street checks.
…
Naqvi was asked what will happen if police forces do not comply with the ban or the other regulations his government will bring in.
“They will have no option but to comply with the regulation.”
So cops will now be required to make up bullshit reasons to justify their continued use of the practice and if they don’t they will “have no option”.
Problem solved!
Are flu vaccines effective? Prognosis: negative.
Posted on October 22nd, 2015 – Be the first to commentIt’s that time of year again when government rolls out the “get your flu shot!” propaganda under the usual auspices of “keeping everyone safe”.
Well, you know…government.
Now I know that there are questions about the safety of flu vaccines, some of which (especially those indicated for very young children) contain thimerosal as a preservative, but that’s not what I’m talking about.
There are anecdotal indications in the news, and of course I have my own personal experiences with not contracting seasonal bugs while those around me (who proudly got the jab) got repeatedly sick, but these are hardly objective. So for this post I wanted to do a more thorough analysis using the statistics being provided by the very people making the claim that the flu shot keeps you safer: https://www.ontario.ca/page/flu-facts
On the same page that touts the flu shot as “the most effective way to protect yourself and your family from the flu”, the “Flu Facts” page links to Google’s flu tracker to provide yearly data on the infectious disease: http://www.google.org/flutrends/about/
The flu vaccine wasn’t widely promoted by the government until 2008 but has been promoted for kids since 2004. These dates, along with historical population numbers, provide a good basis to work with.
Here are the results of that work:
| Date | Total Recorded Canadian Influenza Infections | Population of Canada | Infection rate per population | Average per period |
| 2004-12-26 | 77828 | 32048000 | 0.2428% | |
| 2005-12-25 | 98859 | 32359000 | 0.3055% | |
| 2006-12-31 | 97598 | 32723000 | 0.2983% | |
| 2007-12-30 | 85821 | 33115000 | 0.2592% | |
| 2008-12-28 | 84826 | 33506000 | 0.2532% | 0.2718% |
| 2009-12-27 | 141118 | 33630000 | 0.4196% | |
| 2010-12-26 | 67855 | 34010000 | 0.1995% | |
| 2011-12-25 | 73778 | 34340000 | 0.2148% | |
| 2012-12-30 | 101581 | 34750000 | 0.2923% | |
| 2013-12-29 | 104231 | 35160000 | 0.2964% | 0.2845% |
| 2014-12-28 | 121388 | 35540400 | 0.3415% | 0.2940% |
I split up the values into two ranges (pre-2008 and post-2008) for which complete data sets were available. For example, although flu data is available for 2003, it’s only for a portion of that year so I excluded it. Similarly, since 2015 isn’t finished yet, I left it out. The above numbers are condensed from a larger data set which you can download as an Excel spreadsheet (.xls / .xlsx), or an Open Office / Libre Office spreadsheet (.ods), and you can always recreate the calculations from the sources I linked to above.
Of course it would be a wild leap to say that you are more likely to contract the flu because of the introduction of the flu vaccine (though this may actually be true), I think that this result demonstrates that the inverse claim is also dubious. In fact, it looks like the trend for influenza infections is actually climbing rather than receding.
What’s unfortunate is that many people, often the same ones that uphold objective science and reject theology, are willing to entirely and instantly reject any such claims when they’re contrary to those pushed forward by the “authorities”. Sounds like dogmatic religion to me, but what do I know, I must just be a bitter anti-vaxxer.
And the winner is…
Posted on October 21st, 2015 – 1 CommentI know that it’s basically impossible to prove at this point, but I was 100% correct about the results of this week’s election:
Government won!
So many feels
Posted on October 20th, 2015 – Be the first to commentTCL’s search stats suggest that I may have hit a nerve…
How did I vote?
Posted on October 19th, 2015 – Be the first to commentI didn’t.
Instead of spending an hour to stuff a flimsy paper ballot into a flimsy paper box that’s manned by a well-meaning geriatric every four years and then using the remaining time exercising my “right” to wallow and complain when things inevitably go wrong, I choose to spend 99.998% of my time (yeah…do the math) making an actual difference. Trying to, anyways.
To put it bluntly, if you voted for any politician then it’s you who have no “right to complain” (as statists are fond of blathering), when the government that you implicitly “granted” the ability to fuck you over, fucks you over. I mean, you actually went out of your way to do that!
Uncle Tetsu’s Cheesy Cakes
Posted on October 14th, 2015 – 1 Comment
Today I got a chance to try the headliner at the perennially busy (except this morning), Uncle Tetsu’s Japanese Cheesecake.
The cakes are a not unpleasant crossbreed between an angel food cake or maybe a soufflé, and a mildly flavoured cheesecake. With the exception of the company name, there wasn’t a lick of English anywhere on the packaging so I couldn’t tell what actually went into it. Allergies? That’s your problem.
The $10 cake should be enough for at least two people, and the $2.50 cupcake-like madeleines are a good alternative if you’re not willing to make the investment. I found both treats tasty and I’d probably get seconds if the hankerin’ hit, but despite the gushing adoration some people are heaping on it, you won’t catch me waiting in a line up for what comes across as essentially a sponge cake with a cream-cheesy taste.
Not so mobile
Posted on October 14th, 2015 – Be the first to comment
Mos Eisle @ Dupont
Posted on October 14th, 2015 – Be the first to comment
... with pictures
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