It turns out that the parking space bidding war was less competitive than I'd expected: dude has multiple cars in need of homes. One will live in my spot for the next year. Hooray for free money!

Judging from the lack of recent communication from the neighbour, I suspect I lost the parking space bidding war.

A neighbour put up a sign in the lobby asking if anyone was willing to rent him a parking spot. I don't have a car, so I figured I'd take advantage of the chance for what basically amounts to free money. I called the neighbour, who told me that he'd already gotten another offer. Oh well, I thought - but then he asked where my spot was, and said ( Read more... )

The problem with arguing with people who support replacing the census long form with a self-selected survey is that you cite studies and polls and statistics, and they cite some dude on Twitter who agrees with them, and they're so statistically illiterate that at best they'll concede that we've got equally valid arguments.

Pass the popcorn.

While there is a principled and reasonable case - one to which I am largely sympathetic - to be made against many forms of affirmative action, I submit that it is unlikely to be made by Stockwell Day and Jason Kenney, two able-bodied white men who definitely wouldn't be pulling in six-figure salaries if government jobs were assigned based on any ( Read more... )

On the one hand, props to chief statistician Munir Sheikh for resigning on principle. On the other hand, I fear that Tony Clement - who has openly said that Statistics Canada is not an independent agency, and that StatsCan reports to him - will take this opportunity to ensure that the position of chief statistician is filled by someone who is ( Read more... )

The government's plan to replace the census long form with what is essentially a self-selected survey of Canadians must be a popular one, because a self-selected (non-)survey of Canadians, as described by the MP pushing the voluntary option, says so. ARGH.

(Lord, even the National Post, which seems to exist to prop up the government at every ( Read more... )

Google News keeps filing stories about the Lindsay Lohan prison drama under "Recommended". This is embarrassing, because I really admire Google and I care what it thinks of me. And apparently Google thinks that I'm the kind of person who wants to read about Lindsay Lohan which I'm not. Now I'm worried that Google's telling its friends what a loser ( Read more... )

Purely hypothetical question, natch:

When one's bathroom ceiling starts leaking in one's condominium - 2nd floor of a 3-storey building, and directly underneath another bathroom - who is liable?

ETA: dude from downstairs came up half an hour ago to ask WTF was going on in my bathroom, since his bathroom ceiling is leaking. We suspect a burst pipe ( Read more... )