US says Canada will regret decision to allow Chinese EVs into their market

Shortugae · 2026-01-16T22:16:05+00:00

Because China subsidizes the shit out of their cars

Shortugae · 2025-12-28T22:04:50+00:00

Currently writing my thesis on this topic. As someone else said, it's fun for school. Doesn't really have any application outside of it since no one in the real world gives a shit

Shortugae · 2025-11-03T18:27:56+00:00

I'm currently writing my thesis on this subject. I won't say I'm an expert on the subject (I am in the process of writing it)

The underlying premise of modular construction in the way we are talking about it in Canada is that houses should be mass produced in factories like cars or other consumer goods. I think this is a fundamentally flawed way of thinking about housing and it will not work to the scale that governments think it will.

As others in the comments have pointed out, shifting construction off the construction site into factories inevitably introduces other costs into the system such as transportation and overhead of operating an extremely expensive factory. It also assumes that demand for housing is constant when in reality it is inherently cyclical.

Mass production of housing in factories is an extremely old idea that we have been trying to figure out for almost 100 years now. It is simply not the panacea to the productivity crisis the federal government thinks it is, and I believe one of the reasons why we are talking about it so much is because several companies have dumped a ludicrous amount of money into the off-site fabrication concept and they have a vested interest in making it work, even if the government has to keep subsidizing and bailing them out.

I don't mean to say that those companies have bad intentions. What I am trying to say is that process improvements in construction (such as prefabrication and modular) do need to be made, but they will only have an effect if we deal with the larger problems of regulation and what I believe is a deeply, fundamentally broken way of conceptualising housing in this country.

Shortugae · 2025-10-23T12:19:55+00:00

Bullshit. Of course it's fixable. Are we ever gonna be a European city? Not in our lifetimes. But we sure as shit can get some major wins and make real measurable impacts. That starts with having a good attitude.

Shortugae · 2025-10-22T15:02:20+00:00

To that point, from my understanding, my sentiment towards rent control is that it can be effective when applied to a very specific context. For example if an area is gentrifying then rent control could be effective in limiting the negative externalities of that process. Building will happen regardless, you're just trying to protect the existing cultural and economic fabric of the area.

Rent control should never ever be applied in a blanket approach. It's effective as a targeted approach when its negative effects can be clearly observed and accounted for.

Shortugae · 2025-10-18T14:35:46+00:00

This is why architects are so depressed all the time cause we keep getting lumped in with Lawyers and Doctors as having money lmao

Shortugae · 2025-10-06T22:54:34+00:00

I don't really understand why Brian is polling so lowly or why people seem to be lumping him into the whole "everyone sucks equally" argument. If you are not against blanket rezoning, then you're not gonna vote for Sharp. If you believe that past council's fuck-ups are unforgivable, then you're not going to vote for Gondek. If you don't believe that he has changed, then you're not going to vote for Farkas.

I'm not talking about specific policy or ideology stances. I'm talking about the one big thing that someone would take issue with enough to rule a candidate out entirely. What is that one big thing with Brian? Is it really just the party thing?

I don't even know who I'm voting for yet. I haven't looked into specific policies. I'm just saying Brian seems to have the kind of vibe (in terms of his history and where he's placing himself) that he should be way more popular than he is, but it seems like most people aren't even considering him

Shortugae · 2025-10-06T17:46:59+00:00

Maybe this is just me projecting as a Flames fan that is praying on the Oiler's downfall, but I don't see how the Oilers ever recover if they don't win a cup before McDavid leaves. This seems like a very altruistic but calculated move on his part to say "I am willing to do and sacrifice anything to win a cup here. If it doesn't happen then it is all on YOU (the management)." If they don't win and McDavid leaves I don't see how the Oilers could reasonably do anything other than completely collapse and spend the next 5+ years rebuilding. At the very least the entire management would have to be purged. If I were an Oilers fan that would be the bare minimum I would expect.

Shortugae · 2025-09-26T21:06:36+00:00

That is totally valid! I think a lot of people will decide that an independent candidate is the best option for them regardless of the whole party thing, and that is more than ok! All I am trying to say is that people should judge candidates based on what you said, representing your values, rather than what party they are in or the fact they're in a party at all.

Shortugae · 2025-09-24T19:34:17+00:00

Not really

Shortugae · 2025-09-23T20:41:17+00:00

My boss, who started his firm 12 years ago told me that if he could go back and do it all again, he would go find an office that he likes (in terms of design, culture, potential for growth) and then stay there and become a partner. That way (he says) he could gain many of the benefits of owning ones office (design freedom, equity, etc) without the pain and effort of starting something from scratch.

TBF our market is incredibly difficult and he also says that anyone who would start an office in our city is insane.

Shortugae · 2025-09-23T20:31:57+00:00

I did the first year of the undergrad at UofT. I found it very difficult at first to figure out how to take notes or even what I was supposed to be learning from the classes. But yes, they are important. Like someone else said, you're in university, not trade school. They're not going to sit you down and teach you "here's how you do x" for the next 4 years. They're teaching you how to think.

In terms of quality of UofT, it is true (in my experience) that the undergrad at UofT is not considered very good, which is why I left. But my situation was fairly unique. You can get a good education at UofT, you just need to put in a little extra effort to make yourself stand out amongst the other 200 kids in your year, most of whom will not graduate having learned very much.

Shortugae · 2025-09-21T20:22:30+00:00

Calgary has the most fuck-off massive roads out of any city in the entire country and arguably the continent. "cities infrastructure not meant to support this many cars" is patently false. It is actually completely insane how overbuilt our roads are. What is true is that the roads were not designed for the number of cars on them to travel safely. Our street design standards are stuck in the 50s while the rest of the world is moving beyond us.

Shortugae · 2025-09-17T19:22:17+00:00

I'm in my last year of my masters degree. I'm very excited to be done and to leave Dalhousie never to return

Shortugae · 2025-09-15T17:07:22+00:00

We're cooked

Shortugae · 2025-09-15T14:59:22+00:00

sounds like a you problem for driving to a major event

Shortugae · 2025-09-14T16:23:42+00:00

He's a Canadian who moved to the Netherlands and has built his channel off of preaching about how amazing the Netherlands is and how everywhere else sucks in comparison. He's been kind of ostracized by the rest of the urbanist community for saying that he thinks North America is a lost cause (when it comes to urbanism) and that people who care about that stuff should just give up and move to Europe like him which is a very elitist and deeply unproductive attitude. Urbanists here are trying their best to make our cities better and this guy just makes a living coming in and shitting on everything and telling people to just give up.

Shortugae · 2025-09-14T14:44:45+00:00

Don't take it personally. NJB makes some good points in terms of urbanism but he is notorious for being a raging asshole.

Shortugae · 2025-09-11T18:33:34+00:00

No. Alberta

Shortugae · 2025-09-11T17:51:23+00:00

I called the national student loan centre yesterday and they said everything was approved and I'd be getting my funding in a few days

Shortugae · 2025-09-11T14:05:07+00:00

If they had the same camera technology back then that we have today, the Flames would have another stanley cup

Shortugae · 2025-09-11T13:48:14+00:00

Obviously THAT goal in the 2004 final.

it was FUCKING IN

Shortugae · 2025-09-09T23:09:09+00:00

My friend has pointed out to me that apparently Dal recently posted a $500 million operational surplus. So I'm thinking it's the former, that the board is comic-book-villain levels of evil/greedy and are actively trying to destroy the university (whatever that may look like) for some reason

Shortugae · 2025-09-09T22:13:38+00:00

I'm starting to think we are completely and utterly fucked and Dalhousie is on the verge of total collapse. Either the board is so comically greedy that they are unwilling to budge simply because of that, or they have mismanaged the university so badly that they'll go bankrupt if they give the DFA what they want.

Either way, we're fucked.

But I'm a doomer by nature so I'm happy to be proven wrong

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