I'm just coming at this as someone who didn't even know it was based off a book and thought the universe and concept was cool enough to warrant more content.
Well that's it. No need for any more comments. We aren't getting any better than this right here.
Yeah I recently rewatched it. Holds up very well, am a big fan of the movie.
I keep hoping the sequel will get off the ground, but so far no luck.
You have no idea how many cases of Monster I can fit in the bed bro.
Annnnnd this is exactly why we need the carbon tax.
Just wanted to hit the point harder since it's not kind of spread out, it's super spread out. Which is super frustrating because it's causing a lot of issues.
It's crazy to me that you can get this much detail even through our atmosphere.
This is so obviously what needs to happen. The fact that it hasn't says everything you need to know about current governments.
Seems to me like this would disproportionately cause losses in the most talented employees
Careful, you might convince Tesla shareholders to fork over a few more billion to keep the big brained genius motivated.
Wait... Mr Hanky was introduced in 1997. Don't you tell me that is just a coincidence!
You have to wonder how bad it needs to get for the fervent among the deniers to come around.
Given our experience with COVID I'm guessing there's a sizable chunk who could be on their death bed still clinging to their ignorance.
It's crazy to me that some schools don't even have ac. Mini splits are cheap as hell. From an email I got recently:
Provincially, the percentage of schools with more than 25% air conditioning coverage is 44%. Since 2017, the OCDSB has made considerable progress improving the cooling systems in our schools:
70% of schools have air conditioning in some or all learning spaces (an increase from 41% in 2017) 25% are partially air conditioned to varying levels, but not in classrooms 5% of schools have no central air conditioning (a drop from 34% in 2017).
Thank you for your service! One of the best things to come out of the pandemic IMO.
I don't know how much the ring was worth, but that picture and story are probably pretty close
I know it's beside the point, but that's a pretty cool hacking group name. I feel like the other groups aren't even trying to sound badass.
>Ottawa's vacant unit tax (VUT) is raking in millions more than expected, leaving some residents and one city councillor wondering whether it's a fix for the housing crisis or simply a cash grab.
>The tax charges one per cent of the assessed value of homes left unoccupied for six months or more within one year. It's meant to push property owners to either put those units up for sale or rent them to address the city's housing shortage.
>When council approved the tax two years ago, it was expected to bring in about $6.6 million per year. But city staff now say last year's revenue haul came to $11.5 million.
>Orléans East-Cumberland Coun. Matt Luloff, a longstanding critic of the tax, asked staff for that information through a formal inquiry. He didn't like what he heard.
>"I don't think that this program is truly doing what it was meant to do, which is to free up rental units — not to become a new income source for the City of Ottawa," said Luloff.
>Luloff said he hasn't seen a clear measure of whether the tax is actually getting vacant homes back on the market. He also asked staff for more detailed information about how the revenue is being spent.
>Staff responded that all of the money goes to fund affordable housing initiatives, minus about $2.3 million spent to administer the program, though they promised to get Luloff additional details.
>Premier Doug Ford's government is scrapping Ontario's program for sampling wastewater to monitor the level of COVID-19 in the population.
>The program measures how much of the virus that causes COVID-19 is circulating around the province and is run by a dozen universities and research sites, through funding from the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks.
>In a statement, a provincial official said the move will "avoid duplication" with a federal program.
>"The federal government conducts wastewater surveillance across Canada and is moving to expand its sampling to additional sites in Ontario," said Environment Ministry spokesperson Gary Wheeler in an email to CBC News.
>"Ontario is working to support this expansion while winding down the provincial wastewater surveillance initiative," he said.
>Public health officials are criticizing the move as short-sighted.
Anaplasmosis can cause fever, headache, muscle aches, chills and severe respiratory illness, among other symptoms. If not treated, it can be life-threatening.
>At a time when tick populations are increasing, the Ottawa area is becoming a hotspot for one of the lesser-known illnesses spread by black-legged ticks.
>Anaplasmosis can cause fever, headache, muscle aches, chills and severe respiratory illness, among other symptoms. If not treated, it can be life-threatening, especially in people with compromised immune systems. It is less common than Lyme disease, also spread by black-legged ticks. Both are treated with antibiotics.
>Those are two of the potentially severe illnesses spread by ticks that are now being closely monitored by public health officials in Ontario as disease-carrying ticks spread through the province. They also include babesiosis, a bacterial infection, and Powassan virus, a rare disease that causes encephalitis and severe illness.
>The increased scrutiny comes as health officials are warning that Canadians are at increased risk of tick-borne diseases because of climate change. This week an Ottawa woman succumbed to complications from Powassan virus she has struggled with since she was infected by a tick near her home in Alta Vista in 2021.
>Ottawa Public Health spokesperson Emily Morrison says people should take precautions to avoid being bitten by ticks. There are many health benefits from being active and outdoors during warm weather, said Morrison, who is program manager of environmental health at Ottawa Public Health, “however, if you will be in outdoor areas suitable for black-legged ticks, it is important to be aware of the risks of ticks and tick-related diseases, and how to protect oneself.” Tick habitats include wooded areas and areas with tall grasses.
>A "frustrating" refusal by the province has not weakened the city's resolve to launch a taxis-as-ambulances pilot project, Ottawa's paramedic chief told reporters on Wednesday, explaining that an opportunity may be hiding in what the ministry didn't say.
>The City of Ottawa proposed the pilot last autumn as a way to offset the hours paramedics are waiting at overcrowded emergency rooms. These delays lead to "code zero" events where no ambulance is available for calls.
>The trial would have allowed paramedics to send patients with non-serious injuries to hospital in a taxi instead.
>"That kind of creative solution is exactly what we need," said Mayor Mark Sutcliffe. "So, I was a little bit surprised by the fact that the province wasn't in agreement."
>Ottawa's light rail trains will continue to skip St-Laurent station on Tuesday, as engineers complete repairs on delaminated ceiling tiles above the platform.
>A memo to council sent Monday afternoon said trains will continue to run through the station, but will not stop.
>The station has been closed to commuters since Friday morning after routine inspection found "a few of the suspended ceiling tiles above the platform were disrupted," according to Richard Holder, director of engineering services at OC Transpo.
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>This is not the first time damage to the concrete has been found at the station. A freedom of information request obtained by CBC earlier this year showed inspectors found "severe" and in some cases, "very severe" damage to the concrete tiles in 2020.
>CBC reported the city did not patch up some problem areas for years after the issues were observed in 2020.
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>Northern lights are expected to illuminate Ottawa's sky Friday evening as a powerful geomagnetic storm ushers in the weekend.
>On Thursday, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) issued a geomagnetic storm alert in anticipation of this rare event.
>Geomagnetic storms are classed by severity from G1 (minor) to G5 (extreme). The upcoming storm is classified as a "severe" G4, according to the SWPC. It's the first G4-level alert declared by the agency since January 2005.
>Robyn Fiori, a scientist with Natural Resources Canada, said the storm actually arrived in Ottawa around 1:30 p.m. Friday.
>"I definitely think there's a chance that we'll still see some Aurora tonight, and it's also possible that activity will reduce during parts of the day and then maybe start up again [Saturday] night," Fiori said.
>The sky over Ottawa is expected to start clearing around 7 p.m. and clear completely by 11 p.m., according to Environment Canada.
>Fiori advises Ottawa residents interested in viewing the northern lights to get out of the city and find an area of clear sky with minimal light pollution.
>"The Aurora is something you can actually see from quite far away. In some cases, you can see it when it's up to 3,000 kilometres away from you, so your exact location isn't quite as important as the sky just being clear and the light pollution being reduced," Fiori said.
>Fiori said geomagnetic storms typically last from one to six hours, but based on observations, this particular storm is predicted to last longer.
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>As the City of Ottawa looks to take over responsibility for parking ticket disputes next year, one councillor wants to look at a sliding scale of penalties that would give low-income drivers a break.
>Capital ward Coun. Shawn Menard is asking city staff to examine options, like gearing fines to the driver's income or the value of their vehicle.
>"The person that drives the Ferrari and parks at Lansdowne, they may be much more able to afford a parking ticket or may even take that on just knowing they might get a parking ticket there, than someone who's going to a protest for basic income," he said.
>"We've had people in our office very upset and crying about going to a basic income protest and getting a ticket there. Their ability to pay was much less than that person in the Ferrari."
>He made the proposal just after council's finance and corporate services committee voted in favour of a new penalty system that would take parking ticket challenges out of the courts.
>City staff said the current system is "jammed up," and replacing justices of the peace with council-appointed adjudicators will mean faster disputes for residents. Menard also saw it as a chance to experiment.
>He said the sliding-scale model is already used for speeding infractions in Finland. While basing fines on income could require co-operation with federal bodies, like the Canada Revenue Agency, Menard thinks there might be alternatives.
>"There's other proxies, the blue book values of vehicles for example, that could be looked into," he said. "That's why we're asking staff to explore the options."
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More than 7,000 people participated, the largest turnout in the event's history.
>A bit of Sunday rain couldn’t dampen the spirits of thousands of walkers and bikers who turned out for the CN Cycle for CHEO, raising a record-breaking $2.175 million for childhood cancer research and care.
>“We didn’t just break the record, we smashed it,” Steven Read, president and CEO of the CHEO Foundation, said in an interview.
>Now in its 17th year, the CN Cycle for CHEO features 15 km, 35 km or 70 km cycling routes, along with two km and five km walking routes for people of all ages.
>Tamy Bell was the top individual fundraiser, raising more than $61,000. She’s the mother of Griffin Bell, who was diagnosed with neuroblastoma in 2018 at just 16 months old. He died in March, at the age of six, after a lengthy battle with the aggressive childhood cancer.
>Bell was also part of Griff’s Gang, a 613-person team that raised a record-smashing $323,469.
>“Last year, he was with us,” Bell said, her voice cracking with emotion as she addressed the large crowd, who stuck around for the speeches despite the rain that returned after a short pause during the event.
>“He ran the whole five K.”
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The federal government is reportedly planning an extended mandate to work in the office, much to the surprise of public service unions.
>What happened: The federal government is set to mandate workers back in the office three days per week, Le Droit reported. The increase by one day per week to the current hybrid work schedule has come as a surprise to the federal unions, who said they were not consulted.
>While it wouldn’t confirm that an announcement was imminent, the federal Treasury Board told CTV that it was “committed to hybrid work” and “continue to assess how hybrid work is implemented and optimized across the public service, adapting as necessary.”
>Labour strife? The recent public service strike was largely fought over hybrid working policies for public servants. The Public Service Alliance of Canada said it had heard nothing from the government, and said any changes without consultation would be a betrayal of the agreement made just last year.
>“If the Treasury Board does decide to move in this direction, then it completely flies in the face and goes against all the commitments they made at the bargaining table to work with the union to achieve flexible hybrid work arrangements for public service workers,” a PSAC spokesperson said to CTV.
>Local reaction: Mayor Mark Sutcliffe said the move by the federal government to adopt widespread hybrid working arrangements since the start of the pandemic has had a detrimental effect on the downtown. But, perhaps hoping not to anger a significant bloc of voters in the city, he has stopped short of calling outright for workers to return to the office five days a week.
>“We need to work with the federal government on a solution, and many solutions to make sure that we have economic prosperity in the downtown core, that small businesses and restaurants and shop owners are protected, that our finances as a city are protected,” Sutcliffe said according to CTV.
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It is the largest overhaul of Ottawa's bylaws since amalgamation in 2001 and will forever change the way the city grows and develops.
>The public got its first look at Ottawa’s comprehensive zoning bylaw amendment Monday, a massive overhaul of building and development regulations that one councillor likened to a tsunami of change.
>It is the largest overhaul of Ottawa’s zoning bylaws since amalgamation in 2001, and will forever change the way the city grows and develops. An early draft was delivered Monday to a joint meeting of the planning and housing committee and the agricultural and rural affairs committee.
>Inside the 96-page draft are the answers to questions such as, how many units can a developer build on a single lot? How close can a building be to the property line — how high can it be? How much park space is required? How will the city’s tree canopy be protected in the face of a housing building boom? How many parking spaces must be provided at a new apartment? (The draft agreement recommends none. Doing away with parking minimums is seen as a way to use land more efficiently and encourage residents to use public transit or other methods of getting around instead of private cars.)
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Oh to see Sutcliffe's face when he gets the news!
As the number of tenants being forced out of their homes soars, an Ottawa city councilor wants the city to do more to prevent bad-faith evictions.
>As the number of tenants being forced out of their homes soars, an Ottawa city councilor wants the city to do more to prevent bad-faith evictions.
>The city has seen a significant increase in the number of N13 forms being used for evictions – which require a tenant to move out so a landlord can do major renovations and charge a higher rent.
>According to a renoviction report by ACORN, the number of N13’s filed in Ottawa from 2021 to 2022 jumped 545 per cent.
>Coun. Ariel Troster now wants the city to explore an anti-renoviction bylaw. Looking to Hamilton, the first city in the province who is requiring a renovation licence for landlords and allowing tenants to return to their units at the same rent.
>"Our office has been absolutely inundated with calls," said Troster, who is putting forward a similar motion to the city's planning comittee.
>“We have no provincial tenancy control right now, which means, in between tenants, a property owner can raise the rent as much as they want. Citywide, this is leading to a massive problem that's driving people into homelessness.”
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After Monday’s eclipse “my eyes hurt” was trending on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
>By the end of the day after the solar eclipse, there were no signs of residents rushing to get treatment for eye damage, say spokespeople for Ottawa hospitals.
>After Monday’s eclipse, “my eyes hurt” was trending on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, suggesting some people had damaged their eyes. But, if that was the case, there was no sign of it in Ottawa.
>Spokespeople for CHEO, The Ottawa Hospital, Montfort Hospital and Queensway Carleton all said they had not seen cases of people with eye damage coming to the hospital as of Tuesday evening....
Ottawa motorists will be paying three cents a litre more to fill up the gas tank on Monday, when the federal carbon tax hike kicks in. A protest against the federal carbon tax is scheduled for Monday in Ottawa.
>Ottawa motorists will be paying three cents a litre more to fill up the gas tank on Monday, when the federal carbon tax hike kicks in.
>As of April 1, the federal government is increasing the price on carbon pollution by $15 per tonne to $80. The federal carbon tax will be 17.71 cents a litre on gas in Ontario.
>Canadians for Affordable Energy President Dan McTeague says the average price of regular gasoline in Ottawa will increase three cents from 159.9 cents a litre to 162.9 cents a litre on Monday.
>Motorists will also see a 3 cent a litre hike in Kingston and across eastern Ontario.
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>Ontario's premier called on the federal government to require public servants to work in the office more frequently to revitalize the city's downtown — but neither the government department responsible for public servants nor one of its main unions appeared moved by the request.
>"They have to get people back to work," Premier Doug Ford said during a press conference on Thursday in Ottawa, standing next to Mayor Mark Sutcliffe.
>"It sounds crazy. I'm begging people to go to work for three days — not that they aren't working at home, but it really affects the downtown."
>Ford popped by Sutcliffe's monthly city hall breakfast Thursday where he served up a wide-ranging funding plan for the capital over the next decade — one that would also require significant federal investment. The "new deal for Ottawa" offers up to $543 million over 10 years from the province for housing, travel, public safety and other areas.
>Up to $20 million is on offer for economic recovery and downtown revitalization.
Ottawa Fire Services says no injuries were reported after a fire broke out in a commercial building along Bank Street in the Glebe Sunday morning.
>Ottawa Fire Services says no injuries were reported after a fire broke out in a commercial building along Bank Street in the Glebe Sunday morning.
>Firefighters say they received multiple calls around 7:59 reporting black smoke coming from the top of a two-storey building located at 785 Bank St..
>When crews arrived on scene, two minutes into the initial call, they found fire in the ceiling of the second floor. That was when they began opening up the ceiling to put the flames out. Crews reported significant fire in the attic of the structure at at 08:21, the fire department said.
>The fire was declared under control at 10:03 a.m..
>"A 'fire watch' has been set up to monitor for any flare ups," Ottawa fire said in a post on X.
>Ottawa fire spokesperson Nick Defazio told CTV News Ottawa the fire was contained to the building.
>However, smoke made its way into the grocery store at the back of the building, prompting crews to use high pressurized fans to ventilate it out.
>Defazio said crews had asked Hydro Ottawa to cut the power to the building, as a precaution.
>Firefighters asked people to avoid the area between Second and Third avenues while they were on scene.
>The investigation into what led to the fire is ongoing.
Ottawa Centre MPP Joel Harden and former Ottawa city councillor Catherine McKenney might be vying for the same seat in the next federal election.
I'd take either over Yasir Naqvi personally.
I am a petty man. Hell he probably just said it for the votes knowing what was coming. Either way it still makes me smile
>Ottawa's homeless shelters are struggling to keep up with demand as the rise of newcomers puts pressure on the already overburdened system.
>The Ottawa Mission is seeing many newcomers looking for shelter and they now account for nearly 40 per cent of its clients, according to its CEO
>"We're easily at about 115 to 120 per cent [capacity] per night, and those people have to be fed three meals a day," said Peter Tilley.
>"Don't forget, we're also turning away another 60 to 70 people per night who when they arrive, half of whom are newcomers,"
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