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By standing before the Calgary Chamber of Commerce and pledging our national pension fund’s continued support for the Alberta oil and gas industry, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) CEO John Graham predictably told Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and her Big Oil allies exactly what they wanted to hear.
Source: Canada Pension Plan ‘Flunks the Test’ by Cheerleading Alberta Fossils: DeRochie
Canada’s ‘carbon tax’ has been politicized and weaponized, with party leaders paying little regard to facts
Source: Opinion: the ‘carbon tax’ isn’t causing inflation | The Narwhal
Berlin: Tourist fatigue and high rent prices contribute to its reputation for being unwelcoming, but it does offer many free attractions. Philadelphia: Despite its nickname, the City of Brotherly Love, locals are often reluctant to welcome outsiders and engage in conversations with tourists. Budapest: Old social attitudes and economic crises have led to wariness among locals towards foreigners, impacting the way they interact with visitors.In the shadowy corners of global travel, certain cities emerge not for their warm embrace but rather for their chilly reception. When traveling, tourists often seek the warmth of welcoming destinations, where smiles and open arms await. Yet, a peculiar allure exists for those drawn to cities that wear the badge of unfriendliness. From narrowed glances to guarded gestures, these urban landscapes present a stark contrast to the stereotypical open arms of wanderlust destinations.Explore the paradoxical realms of the unfriendliest cities in the world that people can’t help but love to visit, each one offering a complex blend of mystery, culture, and unexpected fascination. Some of these urban sprawls are areas with cultural differences that tourists may find challenging to walk amidst, while others are simply places ruined by overtourism (as in, too many tourists, and the locals have had enough!). Whatever the problem, it’s a voyage into the unexpected, where unfriendliness becomes a quirky companion to the undeniable allure of exploration.There are many allegedly unfriendly cities across the world; from the United States and Europe to Africa and Asia, it’s time to peel back the layers to reveal the concealed charm within these seemingly unwelcoming destinations, some of which have even been named among the rudest cities in the world.
Source: 10 Unfriendliest Cities In The World That People Love To Visit
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources Oil and Gas Land Management Commission decided to open state parks and wildlife areas to fracking.
A government commission in Ohio has decided to open some state parks and wildlife areas to fracking.
The decision comes amid an investigation on allegations of possible fraudulent support from an industry group representing energy companies, The Associated Press reported.
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources Oil and Gas Land Management Commission (OGLMC) greenlit multiple fracking proposals on land owned by Ohio Department of Natural Resources and the Ohio Department of Transportation, according to a report by The Associated Press.
The commissioners held a meeting to consider the applications, and many environmentalists showed up to protest.
After one member of the audience threw play money on the ground in front of commissioners in protest, the commissioner chair Ryan Richardson responded, “I’m going to ask again that we can show respect to the commissioners,” Ideastream Public Media reported.
The protestor responded, “Why should we show respect when you are not respecting us, and you’re giving away our land to profit-making oil and gas? Why should we sit here and let you do that?”
Days before the decision, Ohio Senate Democrats sent a letter to OGLMC, asking them to decline the applications to frack in state parks.
Source: Ohio Commission Decides to Allow Fracking in State Parks – EcoWatch
Headquarters for La Meute, Quebec’s largest and now most prominent far-right group, is a tin shed behind the home of co-founder Patrick Beaudry.It’s not quite off-the-grid, but close to it. Though only 60 kilometres north of Quebec City, cellphone reception is spotty here and GPS unreliable. Far-right group claims PR victory after duelling protests in Quebec CityProtest in Quebec City worries anti-racism advocatesOn Sunday morning, La Meute’s leaders, all dressed in black, gathered at Beaudry’s to finalize plans for that afternoon’s anti-immigration rally in Quebec City. Ahead of the protest, Beaudry was nursing a Grolsch beer. It was 10:30 a.m.With him were Eric Proulx, 51, the group’s leader in the Saguenay area (drinking a Five Alive) and Sylvain Brouillette, 52, La Meute’s placid spokesman who runs a towing company by day.The trio sensed that La Meute’s future as a citizen’s movement hinged on their performance at the demonstration. An orderly march, the leaders believed, would go a long way dispelling notions the group is composed of racists and violent extremists. They chafe under the “far-right label,” and prefer to speak of their ideology as “common sense.” “We hope that it will happen orderly. But we have confidence in our group. If there is violence it won’t come from us,” Brouillette said before heading into the capital.
Source: How Quebec’s largest far-right group tries to win friends, influence people | CBC News
In brief: In the thirty years since he co-founded the firm, Jensen Huang has helped take Nvidia from a company with $40,000 in the bank to one of the ten largest organizations in the world by market cap. But despite its $1.19 trillion valuation, the Team Green CEO still worries that Nvidia may one day fail.
Huang made his confession during the 2023 New York Times DealBook Summit (via Insider), where the NYT’s Andrew Sorkin asked Huang why he keeps talking about how he does everything to keep the company afloat.
Huang said that the challenges Nvidia has faced in the past have left him with the unshakable feeling the company won’t survive. In 1995, following the release and commercial failure of its first chip, the NV1, Nvidia nearly went bankrupt and had to lay off half its employees, leaving just 40, and move to a smaller office. Nvidia has had other close calls since then, too.
“I think when you build a company from the ground up, and you’ve experienced real adversity, and you really experienced nearly going out of business several times, that feeling stays with you,” Huang said.
In 2021, Huang appeared on the cover of Time magazine after he was named one of the most influential people of the year. He topped the ‘Most Popular CEO’ survey in October and Nvidia’s AI-driven soaring stock price has seen him become one of the 30 richest people in the world with a net worth of $44 billion. That would make most people feel pretty good about themselves, but it’s not always the case with Huang.
Source: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says he constantly worries that the company will fail
When I decided to enrol at McGill University as a doctoral student in English literature, I was drawn to its prestige as one of the world’s great universities. Although rankings are, at best, unreliable and highly subjective measures, when I entered McGill, in 1997, The Times of London ranked McGill as the eighth-best university in the world.0 seconds of 30 secondsVolume 0:5903:5227:33 I was well aware that McGill produced more Nobel Prizes and more Rhodes Scholars than any other Canadian university, and that McGill had a stellar English program. I had previously studied at Berkeley and the University of Chicago, but McGill was where this American-born student raised in Virginia wanted to be.
Source: Opinion: Quebec should heed U.S. mistakes with tuition hikes | Montreal Gazette
Some are calling Quebec’s latest tuition announcement unrealistic, with the government obliging English universities to make students from outside Quebec learn French by graduation.The move will affect students looking to attend Quebec’s three English-language universities starting in the fall of 2025.Announced by Quebec’s higher education minister, Pascale Déry, the deal aims to address what she and the CAQ government have described as the decline of French in the province.Reaching that level of bilingualism is something Carolyn Moore, a McGill law student from Whitby, Ont., says could be “very difficult” for some students.Moore studied for five weeks in Trois-Pistoles Que. at Western University’s French Immersion School with the goal of reaching a passable level of bilingualism.It’s something she says she couldn’t have achieved solely through apps like Duolingo.”I had gone through the Ontario French curriculum,” said Moore. “But then it had been six years since I had even tried to speak French.”With the help of the summer program, she says the ability to reach a Level 5 proficiency was “more than doable,” but for students who don’t have the opportunity to practise in an immersive environment, she thinks hitting that level of bilingualism will be tricky.”I’ve been in Montreal now since September and I’m even taking two courses in French at the moment and I don’t feel like my French has improved at all being in Montreal because there’s a lot of English around,” said Moore.”You can get by going to restaurants [and] ordering in English. People will talk to you in English. So there aren’t a lot of opportunities.”
Some are calling Quebec’s latest tuition announcement unrealistic, with the government obliging English universities to make students from outside Quebec learn French by graduation.The move will affect students looking to attend Quebec’s three English-language universities starting in the fall of 2025.Announced by Quebec’s higher education minister, Pascale Déry, the deal aims to address what she and the CAQ government have described as the decline of French in the province.Reaching that level of bilingualism is something Carolyn Moore, a McGill law student from Whitby, Ont., says could be “very difficult” for some students.Moore studied for five weeks in Trois-Pistoles Que. at Western University’s French Immersion School with the goal of reaching a passable level of bilingualism.It’s something she says she couldn’t have achieved solely through apps like Duolingo.”I had gone through the Ontario French curriculum,” said Moore. “But then it had been six years since I had even tried to speak French.”With the help of the summer program, she says the ability to reach a Level 5 proficiency was “more than doable,” but for students who don’t have the opportunity to practise in an immersive environment, she thinks hitting that level of bilingualism will be tricky.”I’ve been in Montreal now since September and I’m even taking two courses in French at the moment and I don’t feel like my French has improved at all being in Montreal because there’s a lot of English around,” said Moore.”You can get by going to restaurants [and] ordering in English. People will talk to you in English. So there aren’t a lot of opportunities.”
He has managed to concoct a Machiavellian trap to strangle Quebec’s English universities. First, he proposed a catastrophic doubling of tuition for out-of-province students that would have bled McGill, Concordia and Bishop’s of students, money and talent. Then, he left them twisting in the wind for weeks, while their rectors proposed measures they hoped would appease the government and meet its murky, contradictory objectives. Now, he is hanging the universities with their own rope, raising the bar on the commitments they made in hopes of reaching a reasonable resolution, while increasing fees to a lesser though still damaging extent anyway.
Source: Allison Hanes: Legault is setting McGill and Concordia up to fail | Montreal Gazette