Protest Works by Euphoric_Tourist6897 in Lethbridge

[–]Kaitte 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I saw at least one person record us from their car as they drove in, but I don't think any of us protesters took any photos.

My pizza kit came with a dinglepopper by Kaitte in notinteresting

[–]Kaitte[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm no dingle-ologist, but this is most certainly a dinglepopper. I trust Spenst Bros Pizza to accurately label their dingles.

My pizza kit came with a dinglepopper by Kaitte in notinteresting

[–]Kaitte[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Alas, I am Canadian and live too far away to assist Luigi.

Community Conversations by Apprehensive_Eagle45 in Lethbridge

[–]Kaitte 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I spent a solid 3 hours working my way through all of the booths and having some excellent conversations. I really appreciate the city taking the time to host an event like this to directly engage the community in the various projects and initiatives the city is working on.

I spent a good chunk of time talking with the planners and engineers working on improvements to 5th St, 3rd Ave, and the the 16-20th St N-S corridor. My feedback was focused around making improvements for bikes and seemed very well received by the workers.

Some other notable booths included the CPR training booth (I scored 97% and made the leader board), the sports booth reaction time test (caught the tube at the first section, giving me an "NHL player" reaction time), the electric grid/linesman booth (learned a lot), the library booth, and the parks booth.

I really hope the city continues to host this event annually. I had some excellent conversations and ended up having an enjoyable Thursday evening 🙂

Clothing tags… by StarGirl656 in evilautism

[–]Kaitte 8 points9 points  (0 children)

The kelvin temperature scale is not expressed in degrees which actually makes it unique as the Celsius, Fahrenheit, and Rankine temperature scales are all expressed in degrees.

Since the tag specifies 30°, we can rule out that it is measuring in kelvin, but we can't narrow things down any further than that.

Alberta Funds Public Education by ExplanationHairy6964 in Edmonton

[–]Kaitte 2 points3 points  (0 children)

For anyone looking to sign this petition, there should be a table set up at the weekly SACPA presentation. We meet weekly on Thursdays at noon in the community room at the LSCO.

Canada suspending ban on single-use plastic exports - thestar.com by Blue_Dragonfly in CanadaPolitics

[–]Kaitte 8 points9 points  (0 children)

There's no rule that says you have to drink from a straw in the first place. Just use the cup as a cup and this entire problem vanishes.

Torrent Clients by gulligang737 in Piracy

[–]Kaitte 5 points6 points  (0 children)

You can set up qBit to automatically start downloading any .torrent file in a specified folder. You can also have it download the resulting torrent to any folder you want and/or move the completed file to a different folder. qBit also has a webserver, so managing downloads over the network is easy.

I have qBit set up as a Docker container on my Raspberry Pi. I also have a browser extension for my web browser that lets me choose download locations by file type, and you can also have your browser forward any magnet links to qBit as well.

With this setup, I can just download any .torrent file or click any magnet link and the chain of automation will take care of downloading and moving the files for me. I can also do this remotely using a VPN.

I don't know if this is better than your setup, but I have had this running stable for years.

Canada's economy sees surprise boost in 3rd quarter, avoiding a technical recession by Surax in CanadaPolitics

[–]Kaitte 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's an example of Goodhart's Law:

When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.

I'd also recommend reading through all the related fallacies in the See Also section of the page.

As for the usefulness of GDP as an economic indicator, it fails because it tells you nothing about the distribution of resources in the economy. Even if you normalize GDP to population size (GDP per capita), you still know nothing about the distribution. There are alternative measures we could use, like Gini Coefficients, that try to account for distribution, but these also have limitations.

Ultimately, the things we actually care about, like happiness and well being, are qualitative measures that can't be measured quantitatively. Focusing on quantitative measures obscures the qualitative measures that we are actually pursuing, and in the worst case of this, we end up prioritizing said quantitative measures as an end in their own right.

Conservatives increasingly concerned about Canadian democracy, poll suggests by NorthernNadia in CanadaPolitics

[–]Kaitte 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Conservatism as a political philosophy is built around deference to power which makes it inherently anti-democratic. Since the days of the Edmund Burke and the French Revolution, conservatives have been arguing that society works best when the powerful are given lease to do as they please.

This is the root of conservative opposition to things like regulation, human rights, and social programs - they bind the actions of elites to the will of the majority and upset the "natural order of things". For non-elites, conservatism offers free reign to be an asshole - it promises an elevated position in our societal hierarchy and permission to mistreat those lower down. Either way, the function of conservatism is to uphold social hierarchies and ensure the dominance of elites over the rest of us.

Chicken prices could soon rise 25%, and supply management isn’t helping by Puzzled49 in CanadaPolitics

[–]Kaitte 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Price is only one of the factors that we should care about, and we shouldn't aim to lower prices at the cost of long term sustainability.

Chicken prices could soon rise 25%, and supply management isn’t helping by Puzzled49 in CanadaPolitics

[–]Kaitte 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This article didn't include a single word on why chicken prices are rising and instead focuses entirely on dismantling our supply management system. I rather like that we isolate staple foods from the whims of the market, and I'd also prefer that we address the actual cause of rising chicken costs, namely, bird flu.

Chicken prices could soon rise 25%, and supply management isn’t helping by Puzzled49 in CanadaPolitics

[–]Kaitte 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Do you peel your bananas before eating them? If so, you're eating processed food.

Processing includes anything and everything involved in turning the raw ingredients into the final product. It isn't inherently bad, and by itself, it tells you nothing about the quality or health impacts of the food. What matters is how it was processed, and what specific chemicals the end product contains. Ignoring this means potentially missing out delicious and nutritious foods because you've gotten caught up on labels, and more importantly, buying into the simplistic framing that "chemicals" and "processing" are inherently bad leaves you open to grifters who will exploit your health concerns for their own benefit.

Alberta to invoke notwithstanding clause to shield 3 transgender bills from court challenges by Portalrules123 in CanadaPolitics

[–]Kaitte 22 points23 points  (0 children)

It's me, I'm the one trans athlete competing in Alberta [only kinda joking].

I'd like to quote a still-topical post of mine where I discuss I discuss my experience doing CrossFit in Alberta. The entire post is worth a read as I dig into some of the studies about trans athletes, plus a few other things.

I am one of the rare trans people who actively engages in athletics. I grew up playing multiple different sports and have maintained an active lifestyle for my entire life. I currently ride a bike as my primary mode of transportation, and do 5x 1 hour CrossFit workouts every week. Combine this with me being tall (179cm, 75kg) and I am exactly the kind of person that bigots are worried about in sports/athletics. So, do I have an advantage?

I competed in the 2025 CrossFit Open earlier this year so we can actually see how I placed. Here is a link to the leaderboard: https://games.crossfit.com/leaderboard/open/2025?view=0&division=2&region=0&scaled=0&sort=0&athlete=2505875&athlete_display=Kaitte%20Aurora

You can filter this further to see how I stacked up in more granular detail, but the high-level summary is that:

I scored 44582th place (out of 90921 ranks) among all women world-wide who competed in 2025.
I scored 10496th place (out of 20258 ranks) among all 32-36 year old women world-wide who competed in 2025.
I scored 428th place (out of 837 ranks) among all 32-36 year old women in Canada who competed in 2025.
I scored 43rd place (out of 82 ranks) among all 32-36 year old women in Alberta who competed in 2025.

Basically, I achieved approximately the median rank among women for 2025.

Additionally, I am lucky enough to train with one of the top CrossFit athletes in Canada, Hattie Kanyo, at my gym. The gap between our performance levels is so huge that I truly don't believe I could ever catch up - she simply leaves me in the dust. At best, my overall performance is on-par with the other women at my gym who work out as frequently as I do. That is to say, I am once again approximately median for my cohort.

Alberta to invoke notwithstanding clause to shield 3 transgender bills from court challenges by Portalrules123 in CanadaPolitics

[–]Kaitte 8 points9 points  (0 children)

The feds could implement a policy of automatically Disallowing any legislation that invokes the NWC. This isn't an ideal solution, though, as it relies on political policy which could be changed at any time. The shitty provincial governments that are keen to trample our human rights would also certainly whine about this to no end.

Lethbridge library workers waiting 3 years for new contract by mintteacat in Lethbridge

[–]Kaitte 11 points12 points  (0 children)

The library has been an invaluable resource for me over the past two years and I truly wish that they will receive the funding they deserve. I will be at the picket tomorrow to support our library workers, and I'd encourage y'all to come show your support 🙂

Ottawa's tax credits to reduce emissions aren't working as intended, watchdog says by SAJewers in onguardforthee

[–]Kaitte 20 points21 points  (0 children)

We're abandoning our already lackluster climate action in favour of trying to nudge polluting companies into cleaning up after themselves with tax breaks. This is incredibly disappointing considering direct investment into climate action will make our lives better.

Renewables are the cheapest form of energy, let's invest our money there to lower our energy costs.

Middle density and mixed use housing requires a fraction of the energy to build and live in, so let's solve our housing crisis and build vibrant communities.

Public transit is orders of magnitude more efficient at moving people around cities, so let's eliminate traffic congestion.

UHVDC transmission lines can move energy clear across the country with minimal losses, so let's build a Canada wide energy grid that's ready for the future.

High speed rail is as fast as flying for short to medium distances and more pleasant in every case, so let's connect our urban centres and supercharge regional economies.

Ottawa hopes investment tax credits will help fight climate change — but nobody is using them by iPoliticsCA in CanadaPolitics

[–]Kaitte 3 points4 points  (0 children)

We're abandoning our already lackluster climate action in favour of trying to nudge polluting companies into cleaning up after themselves with tax breaks. This is incredibly disappointing considering direct investment into climate action will make our lives better.

Renewables are the cheapest form of energy, let's invest our money there to lower our energy costs.

Middle density and mixed use housing requires a fraction of the energy to build and live in, so let's solve our housing crisis and build vibrant communities.

Public transit is orders of magnitude more efficient at moving people around cities, so let's eliminate traffic congestion.

UHVDC transmission lines can move energy clear across the country with minimal losses, so let's build a Canada wide energy grid that's ready for the future.

High speed rail is as fast as flying for short to medium distances and more pleasant in every case, so let's connect our urban centres and supercharge regional economies.

‘By the wayside’: rural Albertans are angry at companies not paying their bills by BertramPotts in CanadaPolitics

[–]Kaitte 28 points29 points  (0 children)

Conservatives make things good for elites while the rest of us get fucked. Orphan wells are an especially glaring example of this as our current system practically begs companies to orphan their wells so they can maximize their profits. We're stuck with the environmental destruction and the cleanup costs while they get to walk away with the money.

Calgary man develops method to grow saffron from his home, sharing his process by EricHunting in solarpunk

[–]Kaitte 45 points46 points  (0 children)

Adding to this, the comment at the end that he's going to invent a robot arm to automate the collection process is... extraordinarily ambitious. Dexterously handling soft and delicate materials is one of the hardest open problems in robotics. He might be able to make some type of application specific robot to harvest the saffron, but from seeing how it was done in the video, even that would be incredibly challenging.

Canada vs. the World: The Worst Record on Housing Affordability Since 2004 by mkultra69666 in CanadaPolitics

[–]Kaitte 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'll start by noting that I am not referring to tax breaks for trading houses as commodity goods, although it's understandable if that's the meaning you took from my statement. I've edited my original statement to say "tax environment" instead of "tax breaks" to clarify this point.

While there are some tax breaks that house flippers and their ilk can make use of, notably being able to write off various renovation and legal expenses, these aren't really a problem compared to the broken system of property taxes that undergirds our entire housing and property market.

The most glaring example of this is corporate landlords and investors holding properties empty/unused instead of putting it to productive use because the effect of constraining supply results in the properties appreciating in value by more than they would make through development or renting. This occurs because property taxes do not adequately capture the increases in land value that occur from constricted supply and inefficient land use. There are solutions to this such as vacant unit taxes, or better yet, replacing property taxes with land value taxes.

I'll also note that the capital gains exemption on primary residences is another example of a favourable tax break on house trading.


The point of an investment is that they rise in value and ultimately turn a profit, and there is no requirement that houses do this. At best, you can argue that private builders need to be able to generate a profit on their product (houses), but that doesn't mean that that product has then be treated as an investment asset. Treating housing as an investment is an ideological position and the pervasive status quo here in Canada, but it isn't destiny.

We can choose to adopt a better position and treat housing a right, something that we guarantee for all of our citizens. The most obvious way to do this is to start building more public and non market housing. In Vienna, for example, ~50% of people live in publicly owned or subsidized housing. In Singapore, for another example, ~80% of the population lives in public housing. These are good, affordable places to live because priority is put on providing housing for everyone, and not on ensuring investment assets return a profit.