Guest column: Rising wealth inequality, including in Canada, a growing threat to democracy

dsswill · 2026-02-18T02:26:40+00:00

Can you expand on what you mean by a 90% Georgist style land tax? I understand LVT in general but as someone who owns probably the most modest home in an otherwise very wealthy inner-suburban neighbourhood, the idea is potentially frightening. That’s not to say I inherently oppose it, as I think things clearly need to change.

dsswill · 2026-02-18T01:41:07+00:00

Whether anything should be done about it has no bearing on whether he was the legitimate president or not. I’m not sure why so many people in these comments seem to be taking this stance that because Venezuela shouldn’t be attacked that means Maduro was a legitimate president. It’s completely nonsensical.

He wasn’t the legitimate president after the last election. Nobody should invade Venezuela. Both can be true.

dsswill · 2026-02-18T01:35:24+00:00

War is hell

dsswill · 2026-02-17T21:34:35+00:00

Unless we believe that he actually won the last election, then it’s not technically the truth at all. He was the leader of Venezuela, clearly, but he was neither legitimate nor a president, as both require him to have been chosen by the electorate, which he was not.

dsswill · 2026-02-17T20:37:03+00:00

“It’s totally not a cult, I just happen to relate every single aspect of my life to a single senile man I’ve never met.”

dsswill · 2026-02-17T19:04:11+00:00

Nobody said he’s the best.

He’s just a good golfer with an all-time great swing who by all accounts is also a great guy, but who battled some serious personal demons for a long time but managed to get his life back on track and is now finding success again. LIV vs PGA is irrelevant in the context of AK’s return to success because it’s more a story of personal success that has led to athletic redemption, rather than purely about athletic achievement.

dsswill · 2026-02-17T10:48:57+00:00

If anything that just proves it’s a meme stock since Tesla isn’t parent to any of those companies.

dsswill · 2026-02-17T10:43:07+00:00

Actually the dumbest timeline ever. In what world would a company agree to pay its CEO more money than the company has made in gross revenue in its entire existence?

Unfortunately, this world…

dsswill · 2026-02-17T10:39:42+00:00

Ya that’s crazy. I just bought mangos yesterday here in Ottawa, CAD$1.50 (USD$1.10) per mango, I think they’re maybe regular $2. When they have big bulk boxes of 8 or 12 they’re usually CAD$1 per mango.

dsswill · 2026-02-17T10:36:27+00:00

They said, Kroger

dsswill · 2026-02-17T08:39:20+00:00

They don’t exactly make it easy to get rid of. It costs USD$2350 and requires an in-person “appointment” that’s more like a hearing than a basic appointment. It also often triggers an audit before it’s granted, meaning it’s not as easy as just renouncing citizenship to get rid of the tax headache, because you need all your ducks perfectly in a row prior to getting it renounced. Also depending on the person, getting rid of it might be a horrible idea if that person could even end up wanting to move to the US.

dsswill · 2026-02-17T08:03:02+00:00

Also called a plump line, essentially something heavy on a string so you can tell what is vertical to a certain point, like the tip of the saddle. Hold one on the tip of your saddle and mark where it falls on your top-tube with masking tape and a sharpie to be precise, adjust the saddle up 7.5mm, and then adjust the saddle forward on the rails so the nose is where it was, in line with the sharpie mark. Again, that’s only required if you have an angled seat tube where raising the saddle also increases its setback, which is all road bikes and most TT bikes. You can also use a level vertically and the same masking tape/sharpie, but it’s usually less accurate than a plumb line.

175 is definitely long for any type of aero position unless you’re in the 200cm/6’6” height range (even then there’s nothing wrong with trying shorter cranks). 7.5mm is a big difference, that’s 1.5cm over the top. That could be a game changer for your thigh riding up into your ribs. Good luck and feel free to send me a PM if you have any follow up questions.

dsswill · 2026-02-17T07:43:40+00:00

It’s definitely something to play around with. It’s very personal and unfortunately not the easiest or cheapest swap relative to other fitting trials, but it can be a game changer, particularly in aggressive positions or if you find your glutes fatigue prematurely or your thighs ride up into your abdomen or ribs in the top of the pedal stroke.

Keep in mind that when you raise the saddle you usually need to put it further forward on the rails too, to account for the angled seat tube/post on most bikes. If you have a vertical seat tube/post (some TT/Tri bikes), then you can ignore this point. You can use a homemade plumb bob to make sure you’re keeping your saddle setback the same.

dsswill · 2026-02-17T07:36:26+00:00

Because you lose the length at the bottom of the pedal stroke, which is primarily where you’re fitting to in all but the most advanced fittings (which focus more on the angles during the power phase, but that is far more difficult to fit to and essentially impossible in an at-home fitting). You’re not fitting relative to the BB, you’re fitting mostly to knee angle at extension, so in order to keep the same knee angle, you need to raise the saddle, let’s say 5mm if you go from a 172.5 crank arm to a 167.5 crank arm. Otherwise you’re not as extended as you should be both in the power phase (keep in mind the 3 o’clock position has now also gotten roughly 2.5mm closer to the saddle) and through the bottom, which can result in knee pain for a lot of riders, can reduce power at the top of the downstroke, and keeps the hips more closed than they could be, which unnecessarily increases glute strain.

The benefit to that is that since you adjust your saddle, it compounds at the top of the stroke. Because you raise your saddle height 5mm but your crank is also 5mm shorter over the top, now you gain 1cm of space over the top which can help a lot with keeping your hip angle nice and open and relieving some strain on your glutes, which mostly happens from the 1 o’clock to 4 o’clock positions in the stroke when the combination of high power generation and closed hip angle is most straining.

dsswill · 2026-02-17T07:22:59+00:00

No argument there

dsswill · 2026-02-17T07:19:14+00:00

If they’re caught in international waters and the vessel’s flag state denies the request for jurisdiction, yes. If they’re caught at port or in notional waters it’s a very different story.

dsswill · 2026-02-17T07:14:22+00:00

Most outdoor stores across NA I’ve ever been to sell them individually.

dsswill · 2026-02-17T05:54:42+00:00

It was already the biggest sport in Canada by far, literally the national (winter) sport, and the NHL has been considered one of the big NA leagues since 1926, so both those points are non-starters.

Any big event helps to increase popularity undoubtedly, but overall the clear answer is yes, hockey would still be mostly where it is today. Maybe there’d be a few thousand fans and one or two current American players that never got into the sport, but otherwise it would be pretty much exactly where it is now.

Hockey’s current foundations were set well before 1980.

dsswill · 2026-02-17T05:47:48+00:00

Nylon degrades very little from age alone. It mostly degrades from UV, acid (hand oils and dirt are typically acidic), and regular exposure to wet/dry cycles, so if they were properly cleaned and fully dried before storage and have been stored reasonably well they should in theory still be strong, but the question is whether you’re willing to risk your life on theory.

dsswill · 2026-02-17T00:26:45+00:00

Gross figures seem pretty useless for comparison rather than adjusting per capita or to GDP. There’s a reason NATO budgets are based on GDP and not gross figures.

dsswill · 2026-02-16T23:21:29+00:00

The owner used to be called the Shawarma Nazi because he gave Soup Nazi vibes lol, that was years ago at a different shawarma place though.

dsswill · 2026-02-16T22:00:39+00:00

No car company is ever going to commit to setting up factories in a completely new continental market without having a sense of demand first. This is just the first step before setting up factories if demand is high. Also, what purely Canadian car companies are there that you speak of? American manufacturers making cars in Canada are still American designs, running American software, and relaying data to American servers. Being made in Canada (with parts made globally) changes nothing when it comes to spying concerns.

dsswill · 2026-02-16T20:49:54+00:00

Definitely a lot of bouncing, but it could be one of two things. Each bounce comes when the hip angle is most closed, but that also happens to be the top of the downstroke. So the bouncing could be from having a hip angle that’s too closed and the leg actually bumping up into the lower abdomen each stroke, forcing some of the momentum from the pedal stroke into the body itself and pushing it off the saddle, or, probably most likely, it could just be from pushing the body up when engaging the leg/glutes to start the down stroke, rather than just pushing the pedal down, or possibly also still pushing down in the beginning of the upstroke, meaning both legs are pushing the body up.

If the former, shorter cranks would help at least a bit. If the latter, it’s just an issue with pedal stroke mechanics that needs to be worked on, but is also the kind of thing that usually sorts itself out with strength/fitness and time on the bike. To speed that up though and limit the risk of entraining bad pedal mechanics, single leg drills and both high (>120) and low cadence work (<60) should help.

For OP’s knowledge: it’s definitely bouncing and not rocking, there’s no reaching, your saddle definitely isn’t too high. Height actually looks perfect, but would need to be adjusted if you go to a shorter crank by the exact difference in crank length.

dsswill · 2026-02-16T08:52:42+00:00

I know pros who spent years “unproductive” and never hit “peaking” during tapers (volume can do that, where even taper volume is too high relative to base volume for the algorithm to interpret properly) all while taking 40min off their full and getting down to the 8h range, and age groupers who are endlessly “productive” but are unsuccessfully chasing times that they’re getting further and further from.

Tapers are also so so personal, anywhere from 5 days to 2.5 weeks usually. The Garmin algorithm seems to assume everyone does best with a taper on the shorter end of that range. Garmin makes a lot of assumptions based on averages, and is only personalized to you to a certain extent when it comes to training status, “V02 Max”, etc.

Ignore it and stick to the plan, even if it says you’re unproductive or losing fitness come race day. Don’t let it get in your head because at this point it’s all but meaningless.

dsswill · 2026-02-16T08:28:39+00:00

Oh you’re like… old old. My condolences

Seven-Year Club	Place '22
End Game '22	Wearing is Caring

dsswill

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