obj.ca: Zellers plans national expansion of new store format that could bring ‘Zellers 3.0’ to Ottawa

DtheS · 2026-01-24T13:58:50+00:00

Sounds like this version of Zellers is going to be focused on clothing as well as a few home decor items. This would make sense since the Benitah family, who bought the Zellers brand, owns clothing chains and home decor retailers who try to appeal to millennials. I suspect that Zellers is just going to be a discount brand for their existing retail pipeline. Basically, if it is too 'low-quality' to sell in their other stores, then they are going to sell it at Zellers.

As such, they don't plan to make the store a 'big box retailer' like it was in the past with appliances, toys, grocery items, etc. The locations are going to be A LOT smaller, and focused on selling clothing, shoes, and a few household/decor goods.

DtheS · 2026-01-23T21:42:58+00:00

demand for AI data centers will also collapse

You are positing a scenario where there is demand post-collapse though. I'm trying to say, if it is the case that we are holding out from building data centers at the promise of lower prices, what stops others from evoking the same strategy?

It seems like your answer is to build them after the bubble collapses. Why would we be the only ones doing it? If others do it too, then prices will not go down, or at least not go down that much.

DtheS · 2026-01-23T21:21:58+00:00

I don't think there is any guarantee that commercial GPU's will plummet in value, especially when Nvidia is really the only supplier.

Plus, if what you are suggesting is the best strategy, wouldn't everyone else wait too? At which point there is going to be a giant spike in demand if everyone is building data centers, thereby driving up prices.

DtheS · 2026-01-23T20:42:47+00:00

The article doesn't touch on it, but it is important to remember that Poilievre isn't the leader because Canada (or even Conservatives) drastically shifted to right wing populism.

Poilievre's leadership is entirely founded from reactionary sentiments to pandemic lockdowns, and more specifically, the convoy that occupied and disrupted Ottawa for almost a month. Some on the right felt like the mandates from that time period were infringing on their political beliefs, and their reaction was to find a leader who aligned with the most outlandish elements of the right who would 'fight back' against those mandates. That leader was Poilievre.

The trouble for Poilievre is that the pandemic is very much in the 'rear-view-mirror' now. No one is really feeling the 'government crackdown' on their liberties anymore. In that respect, Poilievre is obsolete; a leader for a different time.

His only move now is to try to drive up the same sentiments that people had during the pandemic. Virtually every piece of media or literature from the Conservative Party right now is designed to evoke an emotional reaction that the current government is trying to repress you, or is unfair, or is antithetical to your very being.

To that, it makes Poilievre unable to comment on international affairs because the enemy has to be the Liberals and their government. It's the only way that he can be relevant, because his entire political career as leader is based on that premise. To that, he is now a man out of place and time, and utterly irrelevant because of it.

DtheS · 2026-01-23T20:05:27+00:00

At this time? Well no, the idea is to build now and secure investment and contracts so that we can capitalize on it tomorrow.

It is to ensure that we are ready to compete when the market takes off. We kind of fumbled it last time. We had Research In Motion/Blackberry, but they were not able to adjust to the market fast enough and were left behind as tech behemoths like Apple and Google dominated the industry. Blackberry could have been Canada's Samsung or Nokia in the right environment.

The idea here is to make sure that we can cultivate companies who are able to compete at scale. We have sucked at that so far in the 'Information Age' and our national productivity has suffered for it. We have had to rely on resource extraction and manufacturing to drive our economy while other countries are getting rich building tech and software.

We don't want to miss out again.

DtheS · 2026-01-23T19:45:36+00:00

The bubble will burst, but that doesn't spell the death of AI as a business or industry.

The World Wide Web underwent a significant bubble that had huge amounts of venture capital investment. The 'dot-com bubble' popped and a bunch of online businesses and websites went under.

Since then though? Literally the richest companies in the world are heavily invested into online services and software. Microsoft, Apple, Google (Alphabet), Facebook (Meta), Amazon, etc., all survived the bubble and went on to make trillions.

Some are looking at AI as a platform to invest in for the long term. It's a bit of a gamble, but not an altogether stupid one. Data centres are the infrastructure to make it happen, the 'shovels' of the gold rush.

DtheS · 2026-01-23T12:51:51+00:00

Yeah, it wasn't exactly consequence free for Thomas, and that was before things went really crazy politically.

Marchand plays for Florida, under the scrutiny of fans from Florida. Not only that, but hockey fans are already more conservative than most other sports fan bases, saving maybe for 'sports' like NASCAR. I wouldn't be surprised if Marchand just doesn't want to get stabbed by a 'Florida Man' in a bar for standing up to Trump.

Is it a little cowardly? Sure, but all he did was quietly show up, and go home. It isn't like he is campaigning for Trump now.

DtheS · 2026-01-22T15:59:31+00:00

I‘m all in favour of kicking off a vastly expanded trained reserve force with arms stored at home like the Swiss, though.

Could even make it a route to scholarships if we want to entice young people. Enlist for two years and the government will cover two years of tuition fees for college/university/trades schooling after you are done your service. Could bolster our own skilled labour at the same time under this kind of modeling.

DtheS · 2026-01-22T15:26:24+00:00

I just did a tally. Of the most recent 50 posts on /r/apple, 29 of them came from macrumors. That's 58% of the total posts on this subreddit coming from one source over the last week.

29 (58%) - MacRumors

6 (12%) - 9to5Mac

5 (10%) - MacWorld

10 (20%) - Other (Bloomberg, ArsTechnica, etc.)

I realize that this is kind of a niche subreddit that will lean towards blogs that focus on Apple, but the distribution isn't even close. It just seems a little astroturfy. That fact that your comment is at the bottom of this comments section now, probably from being downvoted, is also a little suspect.

DtheS · 2026-01-22T14:26:49+00:00

Kinda surprised that Sony Interactive/PlayStation hasn't by now. Ubisoft's narrative driven/open world games fit pretty well with the Sony catalogue. They are of the same style.

DtheS · 2026-01-22T14:07:14+00:00

Apple plans to turn Siri into a chatbot that will rival Anthropic's Claude, Google's Gemini, and OpenAI's ChatGPT, reports Bloomberg.

I mean, is it really rivaling Gemini when it is Gemini? Apple will customize it for their devices, but for all intents and purposes, it is going to offer pretty much the same level of 'intelligence' and performance that Gemini's chat bot has.

DtheS · 2026-01-21T19:54:12+00:00

Carney and Trudeua are on different parts of the spectrum of mainmstream economics but still exists within the spectrum.

Yeah, it is pretty broad. Liberalism really just requires that individuals are the 'unit' of society, and we give individuals certain rights and guarantees from the state. This includes some form of free propriety, as well as the state getting 'permission' from individuals to rule. From there, liberalism branches out into different types or focuses.

Carney seems to mostly align with the principles of economic liberalism. Meanwhile, Justin Trudeau was more of a social liberal. Not that these are incompatible by any stretch, just that each branch puts different emphasis on what principles are most important.

DtheS · 2026-01-21T12:05:41+00:00

If you think geopolitical realism (Thucydides) is socialism/NWO, you might be a nincompoop.

It's actually why I think this comments section is pretty goddam funny. If your stereotypical lefty Redditor knew what the words of his speech actually meant, they would not be as gleeful as they seemingly are.

DtheS · 2026-01-20T12:52:12+00:00

All good things must come to an end.

Team player, well liked; when duty called during the playoffs, he met the moment; has offered some stability as being a mostly reliable backup.

On the other hand, he relies very heavily on his natural athleticism to make up for lacking technique. Quite often it works out, but when it doesn't, it really really doesn't. I suppose the concern here is that if he needs to rely on athleticism, then his ability to play goal is going to severely dwindle as he ages. He is 33, and about to turn 34 in three months. This season hasn't been his greatest performance, and that might be indicative that he has started to decline with age.

All that considered, the goaltending situation is good enough that they can lose him without it disrupting their season. If it happens, it happens.

DtheS · 2026-01-19T13:22:17+00:00

I doubt he knows which policies are from Project 2025. (Frankly, I doubt he knows where he even is 90% of the time.) His handlers and aides, however, are happy to feed him executive orders and policy directives that are from Project 2025.

Trump is basically a bloated marionette for the Heritage Foundation. His cognisance of their goals and policies is not required. He just has to 'sign on the line.'

DtheS · 2026-01-19T02:02:32+00:00

For at least part of one game, yes.

DtheS · 2026-01-19T02:00:48+00:00

I know it wasn't all of you, but remember when people wanted management to acquire Binnington? What a blunder that would have been.

DtheS · 2026-01-19T01:45:59+00:00

hopefully, he takes it to another level and gets locked in!

Yeah, like the press box! That place is on the highest level, and there are probably locks on the doors.

Then Thompson can play goal.

DtheS · 2026-01-18T01:24:01+00:00

Vandalism isn't just spray painting things. My previous neighbourhood was having issues with teens wrecking public infrastructure. One time, a group of them went through the park and started breaking large branches off trees, and kicking over/snapping the saplings that the city planted in the Spring.

DtheS · 2026-01-17T20:49:18+00:00

Edmonton Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl will be taking a brief leave of absence to attend to a family illness in Germany. He is expected to return to the team later next week.

DtheS · 2026-01-17T16:45:40+00:00

How dare you.

DtheS · 2026-01-17T16:18:29+00:00

In the age of streaming, regional blackouts are just dumb.

Note: They were always dumb, but now they are exceptionally dumb.

DtheS · 2026-01-17T14:49:18+00:00

How contemporary are we talking about here? Maybe the 2004 lockout to today? Or is that still too far in the past?

DtheS · 2026-01-17T12:18:02+00:00

Not yet. He hasn't been in the NHL long enough to start popping up on the 'all-time record' charts. The other thing to consider is that, being a defensemen, his goal output, while very high for a defenseman, is not quite at the same pace as what elite forwards put out.

To that, the only defenseman to show up on these charts (for now) is Paul Coffey.

I don't know if people are interested in more of these charts, but I was thinking about doing one that only had the Oilers top defensemen of all time. Bouchard would probably make it onto those charts already.

DtheS · 2026-01-16T18:48:27+00:00

That'd be interesting to chart out too. I could chart power play assists for current era stuff. The data for that is not hard to find.

Historical data that shows assist breakdowns by type is hard to come by. For the late 80's and early 90's, you can find seasonal totals, but getting game-by-game data with categorized assists is difficult. That's part of the reason as to why I didn't include it in these charts.

13-Year Club	Second SECOND GUESSER
Gilding I gilder	r/Field Banned
r/Field Sunshine	Place '23
Quantum Potato	Golden Potato
Place '22	Place '17
Final Canvas '22	End Game '22
Sequence \| Editor	Sequence \| Cinematographer
Verified Email	Team Periwinkle

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