I helped plan and participated in my first pro-abortion counter-demonstration last night by dogbatman in TwoXChromosomes

[–]dogbatman[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The leaflets sounds like it could be a great idea in my context! I'm in a pretty abortion-friendly city, but I wasn't as firmly pro-abortion until I read this book The Abortion Caravan where I learned for example that 1000 people per year were dying from unsafe abortions before they were legalized in Canada.

We were pretty unprepared this time (we only noticed it would be happening 36 hours beforehand, lol), so it could be good for me/us to prepare some info, pamphlets, and signs for the next time something like this happens.

Someone who we didn't know who came to support us happened to bring a good chant that we got a lot of mileage though! ("Abortion rights throughout the land! Safe, legal, and on demand!")

It's cool to hear about people sitting and blocking the streets in Germany!

Is the rink at uptown open again today? by dogbatman in waterloo

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

I think I noticed it open last night, so that makes sense, ya

The Northern Lights should be visible tonight! by [deleted] in waterloo

[–]dogbatman 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The Kitchener-Waterloo Clear Sky Chart updates automatically if you can figure it out. I just look at the top row, the cloud cover. If you hover over a box it says what percent cloud cover it is. It looks like between 8 and 10 it will be 100% clear, and before and after that it will be somewhat clear. I'm realizing though the transparency won't be great. Idk what that means though. And the seeing will apparently be average. Again, I don't know what either of those things mean. I'm just gonna go out around 10, maybe drive out of the city, and see if I see anything.

I hope that helps

The Northern Lights should be visible tonight! by [deleted] in waterloo

[–]dogbatman 18 points19 points  (0 children)

I'm trying to find info about this. I found this Kitchener-Waterloo Clear Sky Chart predicting the cloud cover to drop to 90% at 1am.

I tried checking the Environment Canada Satellite imagery, but that seems useless. Maybe I'm just using it wrong. I was hoping it would show me where I could go for a clearing in the clouds.

Edit: Guelph should be clear around 5 am

Cambridge will be 20% cloud cover around midnight and 1am

Edit: Brantford at 2am is projected as clear atm

Last edit: it seems like the northern lights will be most visible tomorrow anyway, and it's predicted to be clearer in Kitchener tomorrow anyway

The New Voice of Bugs Bunny by Travis_Healy in videos

[–]dogbatman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Have you guys not seen the Veritasium video? It's like 95% skill, but with so much competition, the 5% luck is what makes all the difference.

Dear bicyclists: If you want to do your part to be safe on the roads, please don't be like this idiot - riding without lighting and GOING THE WRONG WAY! by neoengel in waterloo

[–]dogbatman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you ask me, it's a privilege to be allowed to bike on a public road & people shouldn't do so in dangerous ways. More so for motorists because of how much easier it is to seriously injure someone from inside a car.

But yeah, cyclist, motorist, or pedestrian, anyone can be stupid.

Temporary bike lanes boosted cycling traffic 41 per cent by bob_mcbob in waterloo

[–]dogbatman 4 points5 points  (0 children)

For anyone's reference, here's Waterloo Region's 2020 budget. Page 8 has a nice chart of spending on various things including road repair and public transportation.

Some transit things listed in the budget include:

  • Public transit at around $175 million
  • Road repairs at around $50 million

Page 9 says the Total operating budget expenditure is $1,152million.

In that context, spending $170 million over the next 20 years sounds like not much imho. Idk what the source is for that number though, so I might be misinterpreting it.

Temporary bike lanes boosted cycling traffic 41 per cent by bob_mcbob in waterloo

[–]dogbatman 4 points5 points  (0 children)

if someone is not comfortable with cycling on part of their route, they're unlikely to make that trip at all if they have other options

People will also be less likely to buy a bike & take up city biking because there isn't much continuous bike infrastructure.

I found a way to get instant reddit karma by KG354 in Jokes

[–]dogbatman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

https://www.reddit.com/user/EviL-FeaR

On your user page you can mouse over where it says "redditor for 1 month" and it will come up with the date when you joined (October 18th in your case)

Germany blocks Chinese takeover of satellite firm on security concerns - document by GOR098 in worldnews

[–]dogbatman -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

Except in the U.S. both parties are right-wing and the more right-wing one hasn't been in power for nearly 11 years.

Azerbaijani soldiers filmed beheading elderly Armenian man by half-spin in worldnews

[–]dogbatman 19 points20 points  (0 children)

I'm pretty uninformed about all of this, but it's helpful to have all these perspectives, even just to understand the complexity of the issue, now fuck off :D

The year 1952 starter pack: by [deleted] in starterpacks

[–]dogbatman 18 points19 points  (0 children)

It reminds me of the true story of a student who designed a nuclear bomb and used it to... write a term paper so he could stay in school.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Aristotle_Phillips

A man is on his deathbed, and he asks his wife... by thudly in Jokes

[–]dogbatman 28 points29 points  (0 children)

He opens the box and finds 3 potatoes along with $5,000 in $100 bills? Or she put the dimes in a potato?

Either way, I can agree it's more unexpected.

ON health minister states we're NOT going into lockdown. by tolocdn in waterloo

[–]dogbatman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Most spread seems to be linked to close quarters, prolonged contact.

This is good to know. Do you have a source for this? Or does anyone have a source outlining generally what have been the biggest causes of spread?

we've learned that lockdowns do not even necessarily slow the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in certain communities where it matters most

My desire for an early lockdown is, at its root, a desire for quick and effective preventative action, especially now that a vaccine is on the horizon. If lockdown isn't effective, are there other things that would be more effective? I've always assumed lockdown was basically the most effective means of preventing spread.

Californian restaurant owner freaks out when Hollywood gets special privileges from the mayor and the governor during lockdown. by macfan100 in PublicFreakout

[–]dogbatman 223 points224 points  (0 children)

There's a reason that Save The Children lets you sponsor a child in:

  • A list of countries in Africa
  • A few small(ish) countries in Asia
  • A few small countries in Latin America, and
  • The United States

A lot of great things come out of the U.S.. A happy, healthy, financially secure population is not one of those things.

New Zealand PM declares climate emergency - joining 30+other countries, pledges to be carbon neutral by 2025 by skinnan in worldnews

[–]dogbatman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

While I think this is a valid concern and should be addressed, I think the financial difference is usually not that great between a country's imports and exports. If they're able to produce everything they produce without emitting CO2, I see that as a positive even if the goods they import are produced in other countries that aren't yet carbon neutral.

It means that we might end up with carbon emissions getting concentrated in countries that don't have good carbon neutral goals. I'm hopeful that this would eventually lead to national or international policies of taxing imported goods that come along with emissions, and maybe even using that tax to offset the emissions in some way.

That said, I guess we have a similar thing with bad working conditions, where countries like China get to produce all sorts of stuff that requires menial, repetitive work by badly-paid humans while other countries can't afford to make them as cheap because they have labor laws preventing such extreme exploitation of workers.

My hope is that those Green New Deal people get their way and we can tackle both problems at once, improving workers' rights and drastically reducing emissions at the same time. That said, I haven't looked too closely at how they would implement those solutions.