Recent posts

#1

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by HVC - Today at 10:43:25 AM

Trumps plans to Make Argentina Great Again moves apace. Quardrupling beef imports (about 800 million in beef). American ranchers are gonna be so tired of all the winning.

Wonder what  Milei has on Trump or paid Trump. When hes cutting everyone else off. Or i guess it could just be his love affair with far right leaders. 

[indicating strong performance and output quality]

#2

Off the Record / Re: [Canada] Canadian Politics...

Last post by mongers - Today at 10:42:09 AM

Bill C-3.

I did not realize what was the impact until today.

Apparently, a lot more people than I thought can be Canadian citizens.

Sav, if you're reading this, you may get your passport?


I summarize a table in Gemini:

Fictional ancestor of US citizen born in British Canada who would have been a Canadian citizen had he been born in 1947 (no Canadian citizenship before that)

His son emigrated to the US and all his descendants lived there until me, an American citizen, and I want to become a Canadian.

I just woke up Canadian.

That's fucked up.

Apparently many Americans are rushing to get their Canadian citizenship now.

Oh boy, no that is not how it works.  But I am not surprised that an AI tool got it completely wrong.


What is missing in that analysis is what the statute actually requires. There are two parts. Was the one of the applicant's parents a Canadian citizen when the applicant was born; and
did their Canadian parent have a "substantial connection to Canada".

 
To meet the connection to Canada test, the Canadian parents must prove they spent at least three years (1,095) days in Canada prior to the child's birth.

And yet not a jot of criticism of it if one read the wiki entry:

Gemini 2.5 Pro Experimental debuted at the top position on the LMArena leaderboard, a benchmark measuring human preference, indicating strong performance and output quality.[48][50] The model achieved state-of-the-art or highly competitive results across various benchmarks evaluating reasoning, knowledge, science, math, coding, and long-context performance, such as Humanity's Last Exam, GPQA, AIME 2025, SWE-bench and MRCR.[48][109][50][49] Initial reviews highlighted its improved reasoning capabilities and performance gains compared to previous versions.[49][51] Published benchmarks also showed areas where contemporary models from competitors like Anthropic, xAI, or OpenAI held advantages

[Ancestor]

#3

Off the Record / Re: [Canada] Canadian Politics...

Last post by crazy canuck - Today at 09:50:43 AM

Bill C-3.

I did not realize what was the impact until today.

Apparently, a lot more people than I thought can be Canadian citizens.

Sav, if you're reading this, you may get your passport?


I summarize a table in Gemini:

Ancestor	Born	Status under Bill C-3
Thomas	~1830s (NB)	Anchor Citizen (Born in Canada)
James	~1860s (NB/US)	Citizen (Born to a Canadian)
Grandparent	~1900s (US)	Citizen (Newly recognized via Bill C-3)
Parent	~1930s (US)	Citizen (Newly recognized via Bill C-3)
Jim (You)	Before 2025	Citizen from Birth

Fictional ancestor of US citizen born in British Canada who would have been a Canadian citizen had he been born in 1947 (no Canadian citizenship before that)

His son emigrated to the US and all his descendants lived there until me, an American citizen, and I want to become a Canadian.

I just woke up Canadian.

That's fucked up.

Apparently many Americans are rushing to get their Canadian citizenship now.

Oh boy, no that is not how it works.  But I am not surprised that an AI tool got it completely wrong.


What is missing in that analysis is what the statute actually requires. There are two parts. Was the one of the applicant's parents a Canadian citizen when the applicant was born; and
did their Canadian parent have a "substantial connection to Canada".

 
To meet the connection to Canada test, the Canadian parents must prove they spent at least three years (1,095) days in Canada prior to the child's birth.

#4

Off the Record / Re: The Miscellaneous Sports T...

Last post by Grey Fox - Today at 09:44:16 AM

Watch the Men's Big Air replay. Drone footage is crazy fun.

#5

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by Sheilbh - Today at 09:31:42 AM

Too little too late I suspect. Though Starmer may hold on until, say, the by election.

I'd add how a leadership competition would work with the NEC will be interesting as I think it's basically got 8-1 very staunch Starmer/McSweeney loyalists.

Edit: I'd add I'm not really sure you can meaningfully separate McSweeney and Starmer's fates. Similar with Rachel Reeves. These are the masts Starmer lashed himself to.

Edit: Also enjoy people pointing out that Pat McFadden who was the minister doing the media round this morning was making the argument that there was "no point" in McSweeney going, adding "I think if the Prime Minister stays there [...] I don't think that would make any difference at all."

...so close to getting it

#6

Off the Record / Re: [Canada] Canadian Politics...

Last post by mongers - Today at 09:29:49 AM

My great-great-great Grandfather William DuBois was born in Quebec in 1811 and died in the California Gold Rush. Is that good enough? 

Man, the Canadian Refugee crisis of 2028 is going to dwarf the US's southern border problem of the last decade.

#7

Off the Record / Re: Brexit and the waning days...

Last post by garbon - Today at 09:24:30 AM

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c74wd01egvyt?post=asset%3A7b7c23f6-241a-4e0a-b1bd-3fb14756e944#post

Morgan McSweeney quits as PM's chief of staff

We've just learnt that Keir Starmer's chief of staff Morgan McSweeney has resigned.

"After careful reflection, I have decided to resign from the government. The decision to appoint Peter Mandelson was wrong. He has damaged our party, our country and trust in politics itself," he says in a statement.

This story is developing. We'll bring you more in just a moment.

#8

Off the Record / Re: [Canada] Canadian Politics...

Last post by Grey Fox - Today at 09:10:35 AM

My great-great-great Grandfather William DuBois was born in Quebec in 1811 and died in the California Gold Rush. Is that good enough? 

From what I understand, yes. And your children too.

#9

Off the Record / Re: Facebook Follies of Friend...

Last post by grumbler - Today at 09:10:14 AM

You didn't answer my (direct good faith) question.

You responded on a couple of specific cases, not the sum total of it and deflected with a question back at me for the second part.

I answered the question to the best of my ability.  Unreasonable consists of discrete, concrete acts or it's meaningless.  Do you want my opinion based on mood, or feeling, or aesthetics, or taste?

I asked for clarification because I didn't know what you meant.  If you ask me whether a certain factory worker is productive, I can form a judgement if I'm given the room average production of widgets per hour.  When it comes to arresting suspected illegal immigrants not already being detained by law enforcement, I don't know the room average.

I think that you are defining "unreasonable" in a needlessly narrow manner.  Policies can be unreasonable. Laws can be unreasonable. Beliefs can be unreasonable. Lots of things beyond mere acts can be unreasonable.

Ditto for "productive." There are meanings beyond your narrow economics viewpoint.

#10

Off the Record / Re: The Miscellaneous Sports T...

Last post by Syt - Today at 06:53:08 AM

Watching Winter Games for first time since Vancouver. I admit I kinda missed it.

One of my winter rituals used to be to have German ARD or ZDF TV on all day on Saturday/Sunday, because there would usually be winter sports coverage (almost) all day, even without Olympics - a nice way to get some winter ambience at home. I should do that again. Always a chill (hah!) background noise.

And this time (and next time) Olympics are in my time zone.

Watched the Lindsey Vonn crash. Yikes. Also, didn't really need to hear her scream in pain for minutes after.    Though having drone cameras for downhill skiing is great.