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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 8th, 2023

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  • Back in the day, Cott was the #1 pop brand in Canada because they were the private label manufacturer for President’s Choice cola. I remember because they also sold their own branded pop in Fields. Cott’s Beverage got sold off somewhere, and more private label pop bottlers have taken the crown, but there is no reason why some of these pl bottlers couldn’t start a house brand.

    We are entering an era when the new Cott’s Cola might outsell Coca Cola because it’s the Canadian alternative.



  • I think I’d just supporting the inevitable insurgency. Lots of Americans would probably join in as well. I’m sure China and Russia would gladly supply support. Putin’s such a good buddy with Trump, he might even not smile as he funds the absolute destruction of the US for generations at pennies on the dollar.

    It’s the stupidest speculative future I can imagine. Who gains in this scenario? Why do something so obviously self destructive? Thing is, who would start a trade war and “joke” about annexation so much? Only someone so ill-informed that they can’t remember how Afghanistan played out (twice) as well as Vietnam, Iraq, etc. Look how much Russia has bled in Ukraine, and to gain so little.

    This isn’t Europa Universalis IV. The strength of empires is not built on force of arms. It’s built on the ability to wage war at an industrial scale, to maintain the supply lines and build the tools of destruction. More than that, it the ability to develop the connections to never need to war, and make war too costly.

    The steel and aluminum tariffs are a great example of that. Alcan (now Rio-Tinto Alcan), originally Aluminum Company of Canada, is the largest producer of aluminum in the world. It was originally a subsidiary of Alcoa, Aluminum Company of America. It was an example of “friendshoring” or “nearshoring”. Canadian aluminum helped build the Spitfires and Mustangs, the Lancasters and Flying Fortresses of WW2. Similar with steal. Since then, it’s only become more interconnected. The cold war wasn’t won in the fields of Vietnam, but in the studios of Hollywood and the factories of the Free World. Now Trump is throwing that away. For what? That’s the scary thing, I remember learning about Mercantilism in Grade 10. The President of the US is operating at a Grade 10 level of understanding of the fate of nations. He’s just ignorant enough he could do something really stupid.

    “In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity" —Sun Tzu, probably the one quote Trump ever saw.

    “The greatest victory is that which requires no battle.” ― Sun Tzu, the chapter Trump never got to.


  • That’s kind of what I was thinking.

    I used to run Folding@Home, as well as others, as a screensaver. It’s been a while, but I think you had some control of how hard to work the computer. As someone who regularly works with 30 year old computers that run 24/7, it seems weird to kill a GPU by running it,but if it runs cooler maybe it will last longer? Although that defeats the purpose kind of.

    Now you need to use the money you saved and the $15 in crypto to buy two identical computers, then run one flat out and the other at around 50% and see how long they last. Report back every couple of years.

    Excuse me while I look at extreme uptime posts.










  • Heinz used to make ketchup in Leamington ON, with locally grown tomatoes. They closed it down in 2014, choosing to bring ketchup in from other facilities in the US.

    Heinz had also started making mustard, the main product of French’s. French’s decided to take advantage of the opportunity to strike back and took over the old Heinz facility in Leamington and began making ketchup out of the same tomatoes that Heinz had been using in Canada.

    Since then, French’s has been bought out by McCormick, and moved production to London, ON. The Leamington Facility is now Highbury Canco, and it does private label manufacturing. Heinz has restarted ketchup production in Montreal, using tomato paste from the Highbury Canco plant, their own old facility.

    Meanwhile Primo Foods makes a ketchup, made in Canada. Primo is owned by Sun-Brite, a Canadian company, so that’s the trifecta. There’s also that old plant in Leamington, Highbury-Canco that does private label/co-pack. Canada has lots of food manufacturing, at places like Delmar Foods, Luda, Hall’s Kitchen, Giraffe Foods. This means when you buy a house brand from a Canadian retailer like Western Family or Compliments, there is a decent chance it’s made in Canada by one of these private label manufacturers.





  • I don’t know about amazing… but perfectly adequate.

    Their doughnuts are fine, and are always fresh with the Always Fresh™ system, but not as good as in the old days, or old Robin’s Doughnuts. But they’re fine, and pretty cheap. You can probably get much better doughnuts at a local bakery, but it will almost certainly be somewhat more expensive. They ditched the Long John though! An insult to BC. Typical Ontario based chain.

    Some coffee snobs will dump on their coffee, but it’s okay. You’ll rarely hear any sincere complaints from habitual coffee drinkers. There is some stiff competition on the fast food coffee front though, McDonald’s scooped their old coffee supplier, and lots of people do seem to prefer McDonald’s coffee now. I still give the nod to Timmie’s though.

    Overall, I figure Timmie’s is a solid B+ among fast food chains. There are a few gems on their menu though, their steeped tea is solid. I guess technically you could get better tea at David’s Tea, but there is only one of those left, and besides for a basic “builder’s tea” it’s just a good value.



  • I keep advocating for GCAP (Global Combat Air Program), a partnership between Japan, UK and Italy to develop a 6th generation fighter. We can’t pull off an Avro Arrow 2: 2Fast2Arrow any more, our domestic aviation industry has atrophied too much. Even if it hadn’t, it’s just getting too complex.

    Joining our more reliable allies, even as a junior partner we can reinvigorate our domestic aerospace industry and get a 6th gen fighter out the back end.

    There is a problem, GCAP isn’t scheduled to deliver until 2035, so we still need a stopgap. F35 is the most capable, but also most expensive. It’s also in progress. I like Gripen personally, but it would mean starting again from scratch pretty much. Granted with a more basic craft, so maybe even faster to upgrade as a stopgap? Past my pay grade, but GCAP seems an obvious way to signal a long term commitment, with very attractive benefits along the path ^(the real 6th generation fighter was the domestic aerospace industry we reinvigorated along the way). Plus it draws us together with more reliable allies.

    There is an alternative to GCAP, FCAS (Future Combat Air System), a partnership between France, Germany, and Spain. It seems less urgent, with a scheduled delivery of 2040. Plus it’s all EU+NATO, so something about eggs and baskets… although I trust the EU and other NATO countries more than the US right now.


  • It is. I would say (in my entirely non-expert opinion) that any naval spending now is worth more than any navy spending later, simply because it gets the ball rolling sooner.

    I think we need to have a more robust military, a more resilient supply chain, and more reliable equipment. These frigates have been being planned for a while, dragging it out longer just differs cost, and military capability is built capacity; your military does missions with the equipment is has, not the equipment it will have.

    The best time to build these frigates was probably years ago, then we would be in a much better position. The next best time is now.

    Are these frigates perfect? Probably not, especially with the newfound unreliability of our historic friend, ally and brother nation the US. Thing is, I don’t think there is a perfect solution to this. Plus never let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

    Also, we live in a more dangerous world, and Canadian prosperity will suffer. Being a robust partner to our reliable allies and being self reliant on defence will reduce that loss of prosperity. Defence spending should be seen as an investment, or more akin to an insurance policy.

    #ElbowsUp


  • I agree.

    GCAP includes Japan (CPTPP partner), and they seem very motivated to not dawdle with getting a modern fighter. GCAP also includes the UK (CANZUK + NATO) and Italy (CETA/EU+NATO).

    FCAS is France, Germany and Spain, off the top of my head, and has much less urgency. Of course that could be changing. They’re all EU and NATO, so more eggs in a single basket, but more reliable than US.

    One other edge to GCAP is that Sweden had considered joining GCAP, but backed out. They might get back in maybe? Saab is pretty damn competent as well. It would be an even better team. Plus if we went with Gripen and already had some cooperation with Saab, could be even easier to work together.

    Perun had a good video a little while back… here it is https://youtu.be/TTjdEtHYDJ4