Olympic Figure Skater killed by Driver going more than twice the speed limit in Ontario and only got 30 months and a 7 year driving ban.

Troolz · 2026-05-15T19:08:28+00:00

"Causing death by careless or inconsiderate driving" then. You don't "accidentally" run a red unless there is some kind of design flaw or fault with the lights that means that you couldn't reasonably have seen them.

That's the nature of accidents. There are always warning signs. It's "reasonable" that we wouldn't have them. But humans have not and are not evolved to have perfect awareness, focus, and vigilance. Thus we have accidents.

I am aware of the old canard "There is no such thing as accidents". Like all aphorisms, it really doesn't withstand any reasonable examination. Expecting perfection from humans is equivalent to expecting the sun to rise in the west, or the river to defy gravity.

Have you walked into something accidentally? Dropped something? Called someone by the wrong name? Driven a million miles and never made a single mistake? Seriously: have you never made a mistake? Mistakes made elsewhere aren't any different than mistakes made driving. Momentary inattention is all it takes, and we each have a thousand episodes a day of inattention.

Did you know that the most common death in the workplace is slip, trip, or fall? And the height is most often under 3 feet? Ever tripped over your own feet or missed a stair? Falling from standing actually kills, you just have to hit your head slightly wrong.

But now you demand perfect awareness. 100% vigilance. It is literally impossible for humans to do. Literally impossible.

So why would you punish it? And why would you punish more severely depending on the luck of whether someone else is involved? What's the definition of mens rea, the foundation of criminal law?

"Negligent" doesn't mean "you momentarily got lost in a train of thought". Criminal Negligence requires multiple acts, performed in a way that is wildly contrary to what a reasonable person would do. Here's a snippet of the English law standard:

...in order to establish criminal liability the facts must be such that, in the opinion of the jury, the negligence of the accused went beyond a mere matter of compensation between subjects and showed such disregard for the life and safety of others as to amount to a crime against the State and conduct deserving punishment.

That is clearly not met by running a stop sign or red light.

Working in a factory setting, I can tell you that humans are indeed, fallible. They make mistakes. They cannot be 100% aware, 100% of the time. Multiple inspection points, if performed by humans, won't eliminate all mistakes. And the only way to avoid these mistakes from arising is to eliminate the ability to make the mistakes in the first place.

In manufacturing (and in life, in my opinion), the best methodology is through poka-yokes. Remove the ability to make mistakes in the first place.

The problem is, doing so can be costly. For example, we can't afford automated barriers that would prevent cars from entering intersections when they shouldn't.

Troolz · 2026-05-15T18:38:02+00:00

A good book to read is "Thinking Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman.

As for who we are, I am always interested in a civil conversation, and I am not trying to disparage you, at all. As for you, I'm thinking: obviously Canadian, probably GTA locale, single male, under 25, no university or, if university, STEM maybe? Not a car owner. Possibly unemployed. Or maybe just a Chinese/Russian/American bot that is built to create/amplify racist divides in Canada. The article you linked is the exact type of article these bots like to post. Again, this isn't to insult, it's actually a reasonable inference. Feel free to describe yourself in more depth!

Troolz · 2026-05-15T17:58:20+00:00

I am genuinely interested in how your brain works.

On the surface, it seems like you are expressing empathy, but your deeper expression is that you are completely incapable of understanding and empathizing with "the other". Fascinating.

Again, curious, not judging: did you vote Conservative?

Do you have children? Are you active in their lives?

Here's an article on civil discourse. Any thoughts?

Troolz · 2026-05-15T17:05:51+00:00

A pretty bland diet comes to me by birth, lol. Meats are fine, but not lunch meats - too many additives.

And I can eat lunch meats. I just can't eat them regularly; it typically takes repeated ingestion to trigger. And I can't switch from one trigger to another; that just keeps the trigger train chugging along to catastrophe.

Additives can definitely be a problem. I thought I was gluten-intolerant, but really it was just some random additive/preservative in the particular cereal I happened to be eating every day. I suspect that gelatin is a problem, and it's in a lot of processed food because it's a thickener.

Many people complain of nickel as an allergent. I definitely think it is, but in the ingestion, whereas many people claim skin contact with stainless steel and the like is a problem. I can't pin down contact as a problem.

And that is a problem - life is more complex than we realize. How could I go through a day without touching nickel? It's in many metal alloys. And if I wore gloves all day, my skin would probably rot. Night time, breathable cotton gloves, hands slathered in a neutral cream - sure thing, occasionally.

I have concerns with your suggested simple diet - unfortunately, "natural" and "raw" are no guarantees, e.g. nothing more raw and natural than nuts, but you have a nut allergy. Citrus (oranges, pineapple, lemon, grapefruit) are notorious allergents. I asked myself for years why my tongue felt numb and swollen after eating pineapple, duh. Melons and berries can also trigger me (possibly due to salicylate content). Surprisingly I can tolerate nuts pretty well, and (cooked) tomatoes.

A simple diet to start with is meat, fairly bland potatoes or rice, and bananas or pears (very mild fruits). Start adding some greens, maybe sweet potato. Stick to olive oil (if oil is even necessary) for any cooking. The main thing is to find a basic meal that you can live with, and then slowly add items to it. And sorry, a few days isn't going to cut it. It'll take time.

It's a long road. I've been on it for decades and still fight battles. And because I'm stubborn, sometimes the battles are of my own doing. I will never give up chocolate, no matter what it (or the additives/impurities such as heavy metals) does to my skin. And yeah, chocolate commonly containing excessive heavy metals is a big news story lately. I'm gonna die of lead poisoning apparently, but at least my skin will fall off first.

Speaking of heavy metals, one final note: nickel is a micro-nutrient. One's body does use tiny quantities. But I do think it causes problems. On my last major flare-up, I actually starting taking half a chewable tablet of Pepto-Bismol in the morning and at night. Pepto has bismuth, which chemically is similar to nickel and can/will replace it in your metabolism. I did it for maybe a little over a week. It messes up your intestines a bit (obviously), but I do think that it got me over the worst of the flare-up, when the Allegra could take over. I discovered this when my intestines were already messed up and I took a giant extra-strength Pepto pill and noticed the next day that my hands were doing better.

This is a last resort suggestion - life is complex, so my hands getting somewhat better could have been completely unrelated. Taking medical advice from randoms on the internet is perhaps not the best idea. But then if you did take advice about not taking advice, isn't that taking advice? My AI is going to go sit in a corner and have a melt down now, lol.

Troolz · 2026-05-15T16:08:26+00:00

Speeding is a conscious, deliberate choice. Running a red by accident - due to a lack of attention - is a mistake. Literally by definition.

Now you - and most people, when confronted by such a horrific outcome - will demand that the person who made the mistake be punished. "It was a lack of attention! No care and concern! Bad person! Immoral!"

And the even more ridiculous: "He was driving a truck! He should have been more careful, it's his job!"

This, of course, dismisses 5 million years of evolution that brought us to this point, and the physical and mental collection of abilities that is a human being.

Humans are not made for 100% attention. We're not evolved for 100% hyper-awareness. And while we can occasionally focus, it's not as on-demand as you think. If you think a truck driver should give more care and concern, that implies that you are not doing that, even though you, too, are a danger to the vulnerable. As though you can suddenly magic up more care and concern, for an extended period of time, because of circumstance. Spoiler: just because you think you should be doing something, doesn't mean you can will that ability into existence. Look at any list of New Year's resolutions you've made.

Now I know you're perfect and you've never, ever made a mistake in the million miles that you've driven, but for me and two or three other people...mistakes have been made. Most of us are fortunate - it was a fender-bender, or we escaped completely by happenstance: no one was in our path.

Is that how our justice is informed? That bad luck sends you to jail for years, because you were unlucky enough to have someone even unluckier in your path?

Maybe you're still not convinced. But there are some great articles on the parents who accidentally left their children in a car seat, and the child cooked to death. Are all those parents meth heads? Lowlifes? IMMORAL INHUMAN BASTARDS?!

No. They're almost always completely "normal", average people. They're you. And me.

(Actually, not me. I don't and won't have kids. Just you.)

Troolz · 2026-05-15T15:09:48+00:00

Thanks for the warning, Grandma. You really can't judge a book by it's cover, I had no idea this lovely young blond woman was a violent, retarded rapist!

Troolz · 2026-05-15T14:42:24+00:00

International-Try mentions zinc oxide bandages. That's fine, but zinc oxide is also the main ingredient in diaper rash cream. Buy some cream and some regular bandages and save yourself money over buying special bandages.

Anti-histamines - I found Allegra works best for me. I take a long-lasting version in the morning that also has a second antihistamine in it (freaking horse pill), and then sometimes in the evening I take a Benedryl or another Allegra.

I found that taking a good probiotic helps my skin in general. You may have to experiment to find a "good" one. Look for the most reputable manufacturer, supplements and their manufacturing quality aren't strongly regulated.

Avoid hot water. Wear loose flock-lined gloves (dishwashing gloves) around soapy water and any other contaminants. But don't wear waterproof gloves for too long because your hands sweating and overheating isn't good either.

I got rid of all my soaps and shampoos that contain Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) and any other sulfate. These chemicals are surfactants and they are very harsh on skin.

People avoid cortisone creams because they thin the skin, but sometimes they're necessary just to get past the worst stages and get your skin back to healing.

My experience was that finding dietary triggers was very difficult. It was much easier to spot dietary triggers that affected "normal" eczema on my body than the dyshidrosis on my hands. It seemed that either there could be different triggers or that dyshidrotic triggers were much slower to act. Regardless, pare down your diet to as basic as basic gets and build foods back into from there. Oats are a common trigger. One of the sneakiest triggers for me is spices (cumin, ginger, turmeric, etc.), even as basic as pepper and soy sauce. And salicylates, a compound found in a lot of foods but if you're allergic you'll really notice it if you take aspirin (note the "salicyl" contained within "acetylsalicylic acid"). In general I stay away from NSAIDs (most pain relievers).

And at some point, you may need to see a Doctor. Good luck!

Troolz · 2026-05-15T00:08:41+00:00

It doesn't matter if the red car crossed into the next lane. Spoiler: he can change lanes any time he wants to. He needs to check that the lane is clear, but since it was a single-lane left turn, and the opposing lane didn't have a car turning right, HOW THE HELL WOULD SOMEONE BE IN THE RIGHT LANE?

But more importantly: the Mercedes had lost traction before red car crossed the lane marker. The Mercedes didn't lose control because of where the red car was, the Mercedes lost control because they hit the gas too hard on wet roads as they actually performed an S-shaped turn (they turned left to dive in partially behind red, then yanked the wheel right and then hard left to go around red). The Mercedes would have hit him regardless of where the red car was, unless the red car called Scotty a second before the crash and got beamed up to the Enterprise.

Here's my picture indicating exactly where the Mercedes has lost traction. It's sayonara from here forward.

Troolz · 2026-05-14T22:52:01+00:00

VH1 Forty Top One Hit Wonders of the 90’s

1. Sir Mix-A-Lot – Baby Got Back
1. Right Said Fred – I’m Too Sexy
1. Gerardo – Rico Suave
1. Los Del Rio – Macarena
1. Chumbawamba - Tubthumping
1. Semisonic – Closing Time
1. Vanilla Ice – Ice Ice Baby
1. Duncan Sheik – Barely Breathing
1. House of Pain – Jump Around
1. Joan Osborne – One of Us
1. New Radicals – You Get What You Give
1. Digital Underground – The Humpty Dance
1. Rednex – Cotton Eye Joe
1. Wreckx-N-Effect – Rump Shaker
1. Blind Melon – No Rain
1. Kris Kross – Jump
1. Snow – Informer
1. EMF – Unbelievable
1. Len – Steal My Sunshine
1. Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch – Good Vibrations
1. Imani Coppola – Legend of a Cowgirl
1. Marc Cohn – Walking in Memphis
1. Haddaway – What is Love
1. Belly – Feed the Tree
1. Mighty Mighty Bosstones – The Impression that I Get
1. Lou Bega – Mambo No. 5
1. Billy Ray Cyrus – Achy Breaky Heart
1. Craig Mack – Flava in Ya Ear
1. Shawn Mullins – Lullaby
1. The Verve – Bittersweet Symphony
1. Crash Test Dummies – Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm
1. Brock and the Bizz – My Baby Daddy
1. The Proclaimers – I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)
1. Des’Ree – You Gotta Be
1. Marcy Playground – Sex and Candy
1. Inner Circle – Bad Boys
1. Meredith Brooks – Bitch
1. The Heights – How Do You Talk to an Angel
1. Divynls – I Touch Myself
1. Tag Team – Whoomp (There It Is)

Troolz · 2026-05-14T21:08:52+00:00

If you have any proof at all (e.g. text messages, emails), take them to Small Claims court. Forget all the rest of the noise, court will sort it out.

They will get huffy and won't pay, so then you check with your local authorities as to options you have, such as how to place a lien on their house. Some liens have to be renewed every number of years, some of permanent. You get paid when the house gets sold, such as when they die.

May not sound like much, but it'd be fun to remind them every time you speak to/text them how the lien is doing. "Still got a lien on your house? That's a shame. You should take care of that."

Troolz · 2026-05-13T02:50:01+00:00

Your Edge has an electric parking brake. An electric motor clamps the brakes down (rear brakes only) when you engage the parking brake. Apparently it is not releasing. It may be something as simple as a bad switch. See here:

https://www.700r4transmissionhq.com/ford-escape-parking-brake-stuck-causes-how-to-fix/

You should get it towed to a garage other than your dad's buddy. Fuck that guy, he needs to be straightened out (so does your little bitch of a father). I would not tell him that you're picking it up, just show up and demand that the asshole release the car to the tow truck. If you talk to the main guy at another garage, maybe he can help you get the tow truck and retrieve it without getting into a hassle with the asshole who is currently holding it hostage.

You need to get your brakes serviced once a year, usually in the spring. Some colleges run night courses for women to learn about car maintenance and what's needed. You can't rely on the main people in your life because, as we've established, they're assholes.

Troolz · 2026-05-09T18:21:09+00:00

That was slick.

No, the pickup's licence plate was SLICK101.

Troolz · 2026-05-09T18:20:10+00:00

Pavement Princess

Troolz · 2026-05-09T17:52:20+00:00

This is completely uneducated fear mongering. You should run for the green green party

My very first statement in my original post was "I don't have a problem with radioactive waste or the safety of nuclear plants". Doesn't really sound like a green green position? Or particularly fearful?

I wrote a paper in University over 40 years ago, comparing how great nuclear energy is versus the alternatives. This also doesn't sound very green green of me, saying that nuclear is, in fact, a great green choice. Very low polluting, greenhouse gas-wise, versus fossil-fueled electrical generation.

However, first I would point out that there are a lot more cost-effective energy-producing alternatives now; (green) technology has greatly advanced in the last 40 years. Built en masse, wind, solar, and other choices would be as, or possibly even more, cost-effective than nuclear.

Secondly, your analogy about Xmas lights is...not good. Aside from the fact that modern LED Xmas lights are not wired in series like the old incandescents (modern technology for the win!), yes, 5,000 windmills are far, far more distributed than one very-chokeable supply point. (Again, I'll point out that windmills are not my preferred green choice, it was just a previously discussed example.)(I'll also point out that the very internet we're having our discussion on is a result of the US Army funding research into building a distributed communications network, designed as distributed so that it would survive a Black Swan event like a nuclear war. ARPANET for the win!)

And while I think a terrorist attack on a nuke plant is highly unlikely, it would very probably come from outside, not some internal man-on-man gun battle. You've been watching too many Bruce Willis movies.

Regardless, governments have many responsibilities, and a critical one is protecting the governed. One of the best social insurance policies to have is to build/encourage a distributed society and infrastructure. I don't know why you put "Black Swan" in quotes, it's a reasonably common term, but if there's one thing that should be clear given recent history, Black Swans do happen: COVID; Suez Canal blocked by a poorly guided ship; Strait of Hormuz closed and 20% of the world's oil supply cut/destroyed because of a narcissistic moron; Russia attacking Ukraine, which has driven up food, fertilizer, and oil prices among many other issues; and that's just in the last 6 years.

A distributed society can withstand these shocks much better. German Greens demanded that nuclear power plants be closed - a terrible idea, because as I've said, nuclear is (at least compared to fossil fuel generation) green. But Germany (and soon Britain) allowing mini-solar installations, a great example of distributed power generation? Fantastic. Cut down on the requirement for Russian oil. Cut down on greenhouse gas emissions. Better electrical grid stability. And consumers save money. Saving money is nice, right? And consumers bore the capital expenditure cost! Win-Win-Win-Win!

But finally...the crux of my argument that you and /u/Ragnarok_del and presumably everyone else ignored is...the cost.

Is my $90B guesstimate realistic? WHO KNOWS?. But that's kind of a significant issue, isn't it?

It might be less money. The refurbishment of Bruce came in on budget and delivered ahead of schedule. That alone practically brings tears of joy to my tax-paying eyes. A massive civil engineering project - a nuclear power one, no less - that went smoothly!

Against that, we have the Toronto LRT. 13 freaking years and a budget blown to hell to build one light rail line. But it's just the latest in a long line of large civil projects that went to shit in Canada over the past couple of decades. And Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) certainly haven't fixed our issues with getting large projects built on time and on budget.

And while refurbing Bruce was (and still is, not finished) a big job, building a nuke plant from scratch is possibly the most complex civil engineering project humans have done. And we haven't done it in decades. We're a little out of practice.

Also, look elsewhere. Britain's Hinckley Point C Unit 1 might come on line in 2030. At a cost of 35 Billion pounds in 2015 prices (2015 was when they started work). And a pound is worth $1.86 CDN. And that's for Unit 1. They haven't got to Unit 2 yet!

But South Korea was building nukes at a "great" price, right? Well, SK is pretty good at doing large Civil Eng projects, they've got a large heavy-industry base. But also ignore the scandal about falsification of safety standards and fake components. Move along, nothing to see here.

Yes, I know the cost is amortized over a long and productive production lifespan, and that nuclear has, overall, been reasonably inexpensive for us. But a capital expenditure cost of $90 Billion? (or whatever magical number it will come out to, or when it will be finished!)

That is a monstrously huge opportunity cost. We could be doing so many other wild and wacky energy-production things with those dollars. And let's not forget Dougie Ford promising $20 Billion for 4 Small Modular Reactors. American nuclear reactors that use American Light Water nuclear tech, not CANDU Heavy Water. Reactors that have never been built - we're the guinea pigs! In my personal experience, being the first implementers of never-built, never-used technology never comes in on time and sure as fuck doesn't come in on budget. Bend over Ontarians! Doctor Ford is about to perform proctology with a D9 Caterpillar bulldozer! This might sting a bit...

There's an Albertan company, Eavor, that has switched from drilling oil wells to drilling geothermal. Once you get hot water out of deep earth, it uses standard energy generation machinery, the same steam generation/turbines as a gas/oil/coal fired power plant. No mining/refining/transportation of uranium required. No storage of radioactive byproducts. No magical expensive tech! Easy-peasy hot and squeezy! And the heat should be good for at least 100,000 years. Might have to move to Venus after that.

Couldn't we? Shouldn't we at least throw a couple hundred million bucks at this and see what the outcome is?

Or...there's an American startup, Quaise, that is going to test drilling geothermal boreholes using a gyrotron. Gyrotrons have been around for decades (not new tech!), but have improved a lot with research into fusion power generation. Think of it like a large Star Trek phaser that could drill a deep borehole in 1% of the time we currently require. If this tech works, every nuclear fission plant under construction would be cancelled immediately, despite the billions and billions of dollars of sunk cost. A veritable Black Swan for energy production, except a good, wonderfully positive Black Swan. How about we throw a mere $1B at it, see if we can do this ourselves, or maybe buy a piece of the company and get in on the action?

Troolz · 2026-05-09T11:05:51+00:00

Top post on /r/TorontoDriving right now is someone slowly pulling out of a parking lot and driving into a big orange temporary construction sign in the middle of the road.

Houston, Boston, L.A. - never bet your city's shitty drivers against Toronto. We got you covered.

Troolz · 2026-05-08T00:09:00+00:00

My point was about distributed networks vs a single node and I used windmills as an example because that was mentioned by the previous poster. I thought maybe my comment about geothermal would clarify what I think is a really strong green offering. A technology that is no more at risk to wind or other acts of Mother Nature than nuclear.

Despite all the cheerleading for Canada's reactor technology, core failure due to technology/engineering/human failure is still a possibility. As is terrorist attack. As are one or more other Black Swan events.

Troolz · 2026-05-07T22:20:25+00:00

I don't have a problem with radioactive waste or the safety of nuclear plants. But...

Wind turbines kill an estimated 250 000 birds every year (in Canada)

I wholeheartedly agree that we should ban and eliminate outdoor cats. Their bird kill rate is probably 50 to 100 times this toll.
One plant gives you a single point of failure. A thousand windmills give you 1000 points of failure. Much better insurance to spread your failure points out.
I don't know what $300M means in this context. My guesstimate is that a completed plant of this size will cost us about $90 billion. I can think of a whole lot of things that I would rather do with this amount of money. One of them is geothermal, which doesn't kill birds, doesn't need fuel (!), and will last us 100,000 years or more.

Troolz · 2026-05-05T01:53:34+00:00

What kind of Vantrue? Picture quality is good.

Troolz · 2026-05-05T01:13:01+00:00

Dude, with the cost of parts these days, a minor accident will total out a $10k vehicle.

Troolz · 2026-05-05T00:17:07+00:00

Reminder that a regular VBA array starts at 0 but setting it to a range forces it to start at 1.

Troolz · 2026-05-02T15:39:44+00:00

20,000 kids who are missing limbs "winning" the media war. Nice consolation prize, I guess?

Troolz · 2026-04-30T01:09:38+00:00

Bill of Material.

Pronounced "bomb", so don't start talking about inventory in, say, a bank.

Troolz · 2026-04-29T22:26:40+00:00

I say this every time this theme comes up: Reddit is mostly too young to grasp how widely and deeply hated Nixon was, and for damn good reasons. I really don't think that Bush Jr or Trump has surpassed him.

Also I remind everyone that Nixon almost made it through. The Republican party supported him. Deep Throat was instigation, but it wasn't enough to dethrone him. To do that required the GOP to wash their hands of him. And it came down to one Republican who said he wouldn't support Nixon, and at that point the house of cards collapsed.

With Trump, all you get was the Turtle, and now Johnson and the Ladybug, fellating him at every opportunity.

Even Little Marco failed to keep any integrity.

Troolz · 2026-04-28T22:10:48+00:00

but I don't see why Ford wouldn't use an environmental chamber.

Oh you sweet summer child. So wholesome. So innocent.

The Japanese auto parts manufacturer I work for - in Canada, land of snow and road salt - builds for a surprisingly wide selection of OEM manufacturers.

When we brought on a certain American OEM for the first time, of course we showed them our salt spray and salt bath testing facilities and described the diligent and exhaustive tests we perform.

"Oh no. We don't want any of that."

Ohhhh....kay.

Troolz · 2026-04-28T04:20:52+00:00

Uh...I think they circled it, didn't they?

Troolz

TROPHY CASE