So Indexes are supposed to be a little more rigid than just having companies being “removed on a whim” - you would more likely find that on a mutual fund, which are individually managed, versus an index. That being said, I did look into the difference between Dow and S&P 500, and… well, yeah, the former is selected by a committee who generally pick for the top 30 performing companies, while the latter is just a list of the 500 largest publicly traded companies. I think it is generally not used as a good indicator of economic health, as opposed to the S&P (based on a quick Wikipedia read).

I think a few people might consider it only because it’s been running since 1896, and there haven’t really been a lot of changes as to who gets on / off the Dow (58 since inception). So honestly, more than anything else, it’s just really bad PR for investors who might care that Intel is doing so poorly that it’s being kicked off one of the longest-running indexes, which is never good news. Might rattle them enough to where they start demanding big changes, which is likely what Intel needs.

Confiscating their drugs, forcible confinement… you serious? They’ll just get more when they get the chance; they’re addicts, and there are markets for them to find drugs, there’s no easy way of stopping addicts from getting what they need. Confiscating or 24 hour confinement just ends the immediate risk of use, there’s no saying that won’t stop them from getting another hit by the next day (or even guarantee that they haven’t already used it by the time they’re confiscated / confined).

You’re advocating for punishing people effectively for being poor and addicted to drugs. That’s kind of a fucked up opinion, and opening SCSs does not mean you aren’t thinking of the children - it’s also keeping addicts off the streets and away from exposing that lifestyle to children, but on a more humane and practical level.

To be fair, yes, Canada has the second-largest land mass on the planet. ~90% or more of that landmass is largely inhospitable for larger communities though, whether it’s the Canadian Shield and the fact we can’t grow any crops on that or dig through tough rocks, the Tundra and Arctic (where it is way too cold to grow anything, much less settle), vast distances of forests - it is a lot tougher to build infrastructure in most of Canada, leaving it pretty much to the places already with larger population sizes. And even then, most people are still choosing to go to the three cities and immediate outlying areas where the most economic influence and possible social connections are - Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal.

It would seem deceiving, given how large Canada is, but there are very few places outside of those major metro centres where people want to live, or can even live comfortable lives and be productive. Honestly, given how little good land is available in Canada, it would make far more sense to cut down on suburban developments and focus on higher-density, transit-minded communities. Single-family homes are way too inefficient for what we actually need, and having politicians and citizens who demonize quadplexes and other high density options do not help at all.

Bus driver here. Our transit commission finally got it’s first EV bus to start the transition to the electric system! But we still need to build the charging stations for it and other EVs to use, not to mention the bureaucracy and other normalities that go in certifying any vehicle for the road, plus our one garage did kinda burn down, so that has set things back a wee bit…

It’s coming, but do expect it to take a long-ass time.

Average Canadian: “Oh yeah, I got this one easy bud!”

Alright, for your final test: how do you spell Quebec?

AC: “Oh, for sure, that one there is easy! It’s, uh… Q, for… uh…”

…

AC: “Q… for… Kay-beck…”

Oh it’s definitely a great city builder, I quite enjoy it myself! Even when it comes down to putting down housing, you can adjust the size of the plots to perform different functions, whether it is to grow large veggie crops, whether you need housing for specific specialized individuals, whether you just need to cram as many families as you can into one housing unit, assigning specific families to work at nearby locations, I could go on and on!

And there is a peaceful mode if you want to avoid the wartime strategy bits, but even those seem to be rather enjoyable, at least from the initial experience I have had with it. Very much looking forward to seeing what the expanded final product is going to look like, it is definitely a game worth all the praise!

Well, think about it this way:

A standard house for 4 people is probably in the range of 200k - 400k. Then you would need supporting infrastructure for each house - sewage and gas pipe connections, electrical connections, road infrastructure, all that jazz. That’s probably another 100k right there. And then public infrastrcture for things like schools, parks, firefighters, police, road equipment, etc. It’s easy to see why the costs would add up quickly to roughly $1 million or more per person. Managing city infrastructure is really damn expensive, especially for more ineffective housing options (hellooooooooo, suburbia!).

I shudder to think what country would want to actually buy asbestos. All I can think about is how much of a pain in the ass it is to clean up once used in construction.

Stay-at-school suspension for 4 years.

If you can point me to a single hydrogen-charging station in my area, I would be impressed. As infrequent and underdeveloped as EV chargers are (assuming you aren’t able to get a charger installed in your house), I haven’t heard of a single hydrogen charger anywhere in the GTHA. Hell, I haven’t even heard of a single hydrogen car on market that people are pursuing in any noticeable numbers. Li-battery cars at least have some modicum of infrastructure now where, in certain urban settings, it is entirely possible to drive an EV around, and I know they exist.

And there’s no putting that genie back in the bottle. Reduce the number of cars, sure, I would love to see that happen, but outright banning them? It’ll never happen.

I would argue that, because of the war in Ukraine, Russia no longer poses any threat to Canadian territorial integrity. They have 315,000 casualties - dead and injured - in this war. To put that into context, that is almost 90% of the initial deployment into Ukraine. They have spent so many resources into a war that they are actively failing in, there is no plausible means by which Russia can pose a threat to our territories within at least one or two generations. And just consider that the quality of the average Russian soldier has deteriorated significantly for so many reasons, but one most worth noting - it’s barely a week of training for the average Russian recruit, and then straight to the frontlines in either Bakhmut or Avdiivka.

Look at any population pyramid with Russia, and you’ll see that they are massively suffering from a lack of young people. And unlike Canada, which has many pro-immigration policies and attitudes which can attract a lot of people to make up for our lower birth rates, Russia is NOT a place where people want to emmigrate to, in large both because of its dire economic outlook (especially with all of the sanctions imposed by the US and the West), and also because it is insanely bigoted towards anyone who is not from Moscow or St. Petersburg.

Russia is wildly fucked, even if they were somehow to turn this around and somehow secure everything they ever wanted from Ukraine. If they are struggling this much with a former Soviet country almost next door to Moscow, there’s no way they will ever be able to project their force beyond their shorelines. Their navy, or whatever boats they can use on the Pacific Coast, will never have enough supporting troops to ensure they could hold any amount of Canadian territory for any extended campaign, especially since their logistics is raw dogshit.

And that is all without talking about the massive, US-sized elephant in the room.